Effects of disrupting calcium homeostasis on neuronal maturation: early inhibition and later recovery.

It has become increasingly clear that agents that disrupt calcium homeostasis may also be toxic to developing neurons. Using isolated primary neurons, we sought to understand the neurotoxicity of agents such as MK801 (which blocks ligand-gated calcium entry), BAPTA (which chelates intracellular calcium), and thapsigargin (TG; which inhibits the endoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase pump). Thus, E18 rat cortical neurons were grown for 1 day in vitro (DIV) and then exposed to vehicle (0.