Abstract:The effect on exocytosis of La 3ϩ , a known inhibitor of plasma membrane Ca 2ϩ -ATPases and Na ϩ / Ca 2ϩ exchangers, was studied using cultured bovine adrenal chromaffin cells. At high concentrations (0.3-3 mM), La 3ϩ substantially increased histamine-induced catecholamine secretion. This action was mimicked by other lanthanide ions (Nd 3ϩ Extracellular fluid is the principal source of Ca 2ϩ in neurons (Berridge, 1998). Neurotransmitter release is essentially dependent on Ca 2ϩ influx through the plasma membrane. In adrenal chromaffin cells, voltage-operated Ca 2ϩ channels (VOCCs) are responsible for the majority of the Ca 2ϩ entry that supports catecholamine release evoked by both depolarizing agonists and agonists acting at G protein-coupled receptors (Burgoyne, 1991;Artalejo et al., 1994;Lomax et al., 1997;O'Farrell and Marley, 1997Lara et al., 1998). Although mobilization of intracellular Ca 2ϩ stores modulates secretion, it fails to evoke significant levels of exocytosis in the absence of Ca 2ϩ (Kim and Westhead, 1989;Pan and Kao, 1997 Schroeder et al., 1994;Robinson et al., 1995Robinson et al., , 1996. VOCCs mediate substantial Ca 2ϩ influx in these cells and are very effective at evoking secretion. Parts of the endoplasmic reticulum come into close contact with the plasma membrane (Berridge, 1998), and some of these Ca 2ϩ stores are suitably located in chromaffin cells to influence membrane events [such as K ϩ channel activity (Kim and Kim, 1998)]. Their lack of efficacy in evoking exocytosis is likely to be because mobilization of store Ca 2ϩ fails to generate a sufficiently high subplasmalemmal [Ca 2ϩ ]. This may be because (a) the stores do not contain sufficient quantities of Ca 2ϩ , (b) the density of channels on the store membrane is too low, (c) insufficient numbers of such channels are activated at any one time, or (d) local Ca 2ϩ buffering and Ca 2ϩ reuptake and extrusion processes prevent high concentrations of Ca 2ϩ being achieved by store mobilization. This last possibility is of particular interest because the activity of the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca 2ϩ -ATPases (SERCAs) and of the plasma membrane Ca 2ϩ -ATPases (PMCAs) and Na ϩ /Ca 2ϩ exchangers is acutely regulated (Verboomen et al., 1995;Matsuda et al., 1997;Guerini, 1998;Pan et al., 1998