Effects of external calcium on acetylcholine-induced increases in membrane capacitance and conductance were investigated with the patch-clamp technique in combination with the phase-sensitive detection method, in single dialysed pancreatic acinar cells of rats. Both increases depended on an increase in [Ca2+]i, and a high concentration of EGTA in the cell-dialysing solution made ACh ineffective. In acinar cells exposed to a bathing solution containing the normal concentration of Ca2+ (2.5 mM CaCl2), the increase in membrane capacitance was transient and synchronous with that in membrane conductance (current) in response to 0.2 microM acetylcholine. However, in a bathing solution without CaCl2 and with EGTA (0.2 mM), the increase in membrane capacitance was sustained after the membrane conductance recovered to the original level during the ACh-stimulation. The evidence suggests that external calcium facilitates either the resealing of the fusion- or fission-pores formed at the contact between the secretory granule and the luminal cell membrane, or the membrane retrieval (endocytosis) in Ca2+-dependent exocytosis.