The effect of hypoxia on small-conductance Ca2+-activated K+ current was investigated in a study of adult rat adrenomedullary chromaffin cells (AMCs), which were maintained in short-term culture. The nystatin-perforated, whole-cell patchclamp technique was used to study the effect of hypoxia with minimum perturbation of the intracellular milieu. Under voltage-clamp conditions, acute hypoxia (P O2≅25 mmHg) suppressed the whole-cell outward currents of more than half the AMCs (24/46). This suppression was eliminated after application of apamin (400 nM), a selective inhibitor of small-conductance Ca2+-activated K+ current (I SK(Ca)) (n=5), suggesting that an apamin-sensitive component of whole-cell currents is suppressed during hypoxia. In contrast to I SK(Ca), Ca2+ current (I Ca) (n=10) was not affected by hypoxia. Finally, under current-clamp conditions, hypoxia reversibly depolarized the resting membrane potential of adult AMCs (34/40). Apamin, however, eliminated the hypoxia-induced depolarization (400 nM) (7/8), suggesting that hypoxic depolarization is related to the suppression of I SK(Ca). From the above results, we conclude that adult AMCs are sensitive to hypoxia, and that I SK(Ca) contributes to the hypoxia-induced suppression of whole-cell outward current and depolarization of the resting membrane potential in adult AMCs.