The patch-clamp technique was used to study whether cocultivation of neurons and astrocytes modulates the expression of calcium channel activity in astrocytes. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings from rat brain astrocytes cocultured with rat embryonic neurons revealed two types of voltage-dependent inward currents carried by Ca2+ and blocked by either Cd2+ or Co2+ that otherwise were not detected in purified astrocytes. This expression of calcium channel activity in astrocytes was neuron dependent and was not observed when astrocytes were cocultured with purified oligodendrocytes.
