The interaction of Zn ion on Na channels was studied in squid giant axons. At a concentration of 30 mM Zn2+ slows opening kinetics of Na channels with almost no alteration of closing kinetics. The effects of Zn2+ can be expressed as a "shift" of the gating parameters along the voltage axis, i.e., the amount of additional depolarization required to overcome the Zn2+ effect. In these terms the me...

Extracellular Zn2+ modulates current passage through voltage- and neurotransmitter-gated ion channels, at concentrations less than, or near, those produced by release at certain synapses. Electrophysiological effects of cytoplasmic Zn2+ are less well understood, and effects have been observed at concentrations that are orders of magnitude greater than those found in resting and stimulated neuro...

Recent findings suggest that the accumulation of cytoplasmic zinc [Zn2+]i is a ubiquitous component in the cell death cascade. Zn2+ can be liberated from intracellular stores following oxidative stress and contribute to cell death processes. Here we show that the membrane/cell impermeable Zn2+ fluorescent indicator Newport Green (NG), which is non-toxic and impermeable to the membranes of healt...

Zinc inhibits NMDA receptor function through both voltage-dependent and voltage-independent mechanisms. In this report we have investigated the role that the NR1 subunit plays in voltage-independent Zn2+ inhibition. Our data show that inclusion of exon 5 into the NR1 subunit increases the IC50 for voltage-independent Zn2+ inhibition from 3-fold to 10-fold when full length exon 22 is also splice...

Excessive Zn2+ causes brain damage via promoting ROS generation. Here we investigated the role of ROS-sensitive TRPM2 channel in H2O2/Zn2+-induced Ca2+ signalling and cell death in microglial cells. H2O2/Zn2+ induced concentration-dependent increases in cytosolic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]c), which was inhibited by PJ34, a PARP inhibitor, and abolished by TRPM2 knockout (TRPM2-KO). Pathological...

Cu2+, Zn2+, Fe2+ and I- are often supplemented to the diet of suckling and early weaning piglets, but little information is available regarding the effects of different Cu2+, Zn2+, Fe2+ and I- mixtures on bacteria growth, diversity and fermentation characteristics of fermented liquid diet for piglets. Pyrosequencing was performed to investigate the effect of Cu2+, Zn2+, Fe2+ and I- mixtures on ...

Zn2+ is critical for the functional and structural integrity of cells and contributes to a number of important processes including gene expression. It has been shown that NO exogenously applied via NO donors resulting in nitrosative stress leads to cytoplasmic Zn2+ release from the zinc storing protein metallothionein (MT) and probably other proteins that complex Zn2+ via cysteine thiols. We sh...

A bipyridine-based system with phenyleneethynylene at the 4,4' positions (1) and its p-methyl (2) and p-methoxy (3) substituted derivatives were synthesized via Sonogashira coupling reactions. The photophysical properties of 1-3 and their related H+ and Zn2+ adducts (1:H+-3:H+ and 1:Zn2+-3:Zn2+) were investigated, as a function of solvent polarity, by using steady-state and time-resolved spectr...