Although sensitivity to intracellular ATP is considered to be one of the hallmarks of swelling activated Cl- current (I(Cl,swell)) involved in regulatory volume decrease (RVD) following hypotonic stress, the type and manner of such sensitivity seems to vary in different cell types. Here by using whole-cell patch-clamp recording we investigated ATP sensitivity of I(Cl,swell) in LNCaP human prostate cancer cell line. Suppression of endogenous ATP production with metabolic inhibitors (oligomycin, iodoacetate and rotenone) during cell dialysis with ATP- and Mg2+-free pipette solution did not prevent I(Cl,swell) in response to hypotonic exposure. However, supplementing this solution with 5 mM Na-ATP led to the development of I(Cl,swell) with nearly 305 higher density and less pronounced voltage-dependent inactivation (manifested mainly by the increase of non-inactivated current component) at positive potentials. On the contrary, inclusion of 1 mM Mg2+ in the patch pipette resulted in even smaller I(Cl,swell) (30% lower density compared to Mg2+-free conditions), which inactivated completely on prolonged depolarization. The presence of 5 mM Mg-ATP in the pipette did not affect I(Cl,swell) density. Neither intervention significantly altered the rate of I(Cl,swell) development in response to hypotonicity. We conclude that intracellular ATP, a positive modulator of I(Cl,swell)-carrying volume-regulated anion channel (VRAC) in LNCaP cells most likely acts via binding rather than hydrolysis and/or phosphorylation reactions, whereas intracellular Mg2+ is VRAC inhibitor.