Bovine serum albumin selectively increases the low-voltage-activated calcium current of NG108-15 neuroblastoma x glioma cells.

The effect of bovine serum albumin (BSA) on the neuronal Ca2+ current (ICa) has been studied in NG108-15 cells. BSA selectively increased the low-voltage-activated (l-v-a), transient ICa but did not affect the high-voltage-activated (h-v-a) ICa. The increase of l-v-a ICa was partly due to a small shift of its activation curve to more negative values of membrane potential and partly to an increase of the maximal activatable current. Fatty-acid-free (FA-free) BSA was about equally effective as ordinary BSA; the smallest effective concentration of FA-free BSA was between 0.01 and 0.1 mg/ml.