On the antiarrhythmic actions of magnesium in single guinea-pig ventricular myocytes.
1. The hypotheses that magnesium quickly abolishes arrhythmias by acting as a calcium antagonist or by increasing outward potassium currents were tested in guinea-pig isolated ventricular myocytes by recording membrane potentials and currents by means of a single microelectrode discontinuous voltage clamp method. 2. High [Mg2+]o (4-16 mmol/L) slightly increased the amplitude and duration of the action potential (AP) in some myocytes, but overall the changes were not significant. 3. High [Mg2+]o did not decrease the slow inward current (ICa) and had little effect on voltage- and time-dependent outward potassium currents whether or not ICa was allowed to flow. 4. Zero [Mg2+]o decreased the duration, but not amplitude, of the AP. Zero [Mg2+]o had little effect on ICa and on outward currents except for a small increase in outward current in the region of the negative slope of the inward rectifier current-voltage relationship. 5. In our myocytes, in contrast to [Mg2+]o, high [Ca2+]o significantly increased the amplitude and decreased the duration of the AP; at the same time, high [Ca2+]o increases ICa and the outward potassium current. 6. High [Mg2+]o decreased the amplitude of the oscillatory potentials (Vos)induced by various Ca(2+)-overloading procedures (high [Ca2+]o, noradrenaline, strophanthidin and barium). 7. It is concluded that the mechanisms by which high [Mg2+]o quickly suppresses cardiac arrhythmias are related to an extracellular action of Mg2+ and do not include a block of ICa or an increase in outward current. Mg2+ can be antiarrhythmic by decreasing Vos amplitude and possibly by screening the fixed negative charges at the external surface of the sarcolemma.
Department of Physiology, State University of New York, Brooklyn 11203, USA.
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D000200:Action Potentials / Q000187:drug effects*; D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000494:pharmacology; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D006321:Heart / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000187:drug effects; D008274:Magnesium / Q000494:pharmacology*
D008274:Magnesium; D002118:Calcium