The etiology of periodontal disease is multifactorial. Exogenous stimuli such as bacterial pathogens can interact with toll-like receptors to activate intracellular calcium signaling in gingival epithelium and other tissues. The triggering of calcium signaling induces the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-8 as part of the inflammatory response; however, the exact mecha...

Intracellular free calcium concentration [Ca ] has been extensively studied as a major feedback element, transducing endogenous levels of electrical activity into an intracellular signal, in the context of modeling activity-dependent changes of ionic conductances of a neuronal membrane patch through slow biochemical subcellular mechanisms. However, distinct patterns of activity may induce simil...

AIMS Ageing-related cardiac disorders such as heart failure and atrial fibrillation often present with intracellular calcium homeostasis dysfunction. However, knowledge of the intrinsic effects of ageing on cellular calcium handling in the human heart is sparse. Therefore, this study aimed to analyse how ageing affects key mechanisms that regulate intracellular calcium in human atrial myocytes....

Mycobacterium tuberculosis modulates levels and activity of key intracellular second messengers to evade protective immune responses. Calcium release from voltage gated calcium channels (VGCC) regulates immune responses to pathogens. In this study, we investigated the roles of VGCC in regulating protective immunity to mycobacteria in vitro and in vivo. Inhibiting L-type or R-type VGCC in dendri...

The ERK5 cascade is a MAPK pathway that transmits both mitogenic and stress signals, yet its mechanism of activation is not fully understood. Using intracellular calcium modifiers, we found that ERK5 activation by EGF is inhibited both by the depletion and elevation of intracellular calcium levels. This calcium effect was found to occur upstream of MEKK2, which is the MAP3K of the ERK5 cascade....

Calcium movement across plasma membranes occurs mainly by three routes: voltage-dependent calcium channels, adenosine 5'-triphosphate-driven calcium pump, and Na+-Ca2 exchange. The regulation of the intracellular ionized calcium is the consequence of two parallel calcium transport mechanisms: a high affinity, low capacity system responsible for extruding calcium during resting conditions (calci...

Intracellular calcium transients are a universal phenomenon at fertilization and are required for egg activation, but the exact role of Ca2+ in second-polar-body emission remains unknown. On the other hand, similar calcium transients have not been demonstrated during oocyte maturation, and yet, manipulating intracellular calcium levels interferes with first-polar-body emission in mice and frogs...

BACKGROUND The vitamin D receptor (VDR) is expressed in human spermatozoa, and VDR-knockout mice and vitamin D (VD) deficiency in rodents results in impaired fertility, low sperm counts and a low number of motile spermatozoa. We investigated the role of activated VD (1,25(OH)(2)D(3)) in human spermatozoa and whether VD serum levels are associated with semen quality. METHODS Cross-sectional as...