Lucifer Yellow CH modifies voltage-gated channels and a ligand-gated channel in a light-dependent manner

Lucifer Yellow CH (LY), a fluorescent dye, has been used to visualize the cell investigated electrophysiologically. Recently, we showed that LY slowed the inactivation of voltage-gated Na+ channels in a light-dependent manner by increasing their open time. Here we show that LY increases the current magnitude of outwardly rectifying and inwardly rectifying K+ channels and AMPA receptor channels but has no effect on that of HVA-Ca2+, Cl−, NMDA, kainite and 5HT3 channels. The mechanism of how light-exposed LY modifies ion channels is discussed.