TRPA1 is a Ca2+-permeable ion channel involved in many sensory disorders such as pain, itch and neuropathy. Notably, the function of TRPA1 depends on Ca2+, with low Ca2+ potentiating and high Ca2+ inactivating TRPA1. However, it remains unknown how Ca2+ exerts such contrasting effects. Here, we show that Ca2+ regulates TRPA1 through calmodulin, which binds to TRPA1 in a Ca2+-dependent manner. C...

Bovine adrenal medullary cells, cultured on quartz plates, were superfused with buffer to which pulses of stimulant were added. Cytosolic Ca2+ was measured by the fura-2 fluorescence method and the simultaneously released catecholamine was measured electrochemically. When stimulant concentrations were adjusted to given equivalent elevations of cytosolic Ca2+, secretion depended entirely on whet...

Ca2+ is implicated as a second messenger in the response of stomata to a range of stimuli. However, the mechanism by which stimulus-induced increases in guard cell cytosolic free Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) are transduced into different physiological responses remains to be explained. Oscillations in [Ca2+]i may provide one way in which this can occur. We used photometric and imaging techniques to examine t...

Intracellular Ca2+ concentration was measured in single Cf1 cells (Choristoneura fumiferana, spruce budworm) loaded with Fura-2, a Ca2+-sensitive fluorescent probe. Cf1 cells displayed Ca2+ surges in response to Cry1Ac and Cry1C proteins, two Cf1-toxic Bacillus thuringiensis products, but not to Cry1Aa and Cry3A, which are not toxic to Cf1 cells. In the presence of extracellular Ca2+, the toxin...

Background and Objectives: Dental doctors routinely infiltrate adrenaline combined with lidocaine into the oral mucosa. However, they do not well know the physiological characteristics and mechanisms of contraction induced by adrenaline in the oral maxillofacial artery. We investigated the changes in the intracellular Ca2+ concentration by an adrenaline-induced contraction in the swine lingual ...

Steady-state free Ca2+ concentrations have been measured with a Ca2+ electrode using suspensions of isolated rat liver mitochondria or saponin-treated hepatocytes. Mitochondria, when incubated in the presence of Mg2+ and MgATP2-, maintain a steady-state PCB2+ (-log [Ca2+]) of approximately 6.1 (0.8 FM). Addition of spermine lowered this value to a pCa2+ of 6.6 (0.25 pM). Spermine was the most...

The inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3)-induced Ca2+ release was studied using streptolysin O-permeabilized bovine adrenal chromaffin cells. The IP3-induced Ca2+ release was followed by Ca2+ reuptake into intracellular compartments. The IP3-induced Ca2+ release diminished after sequential applications of the same amount of IP3. Addition of 20 microM GTP fully restored the sensitivity to IP3. Gua...

Although sarcolemmal (SL) Na+/Ca2+ exchanger is known to regulate the intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i), its involvement in catecholamine-induced increase in [Ca2+]i is not fully understood. To gain some information in this regard, isolated rat cardiomyocytes were treated with different agents, which are known to modify Ca2+ movements, in the absence or presence of a beta-adrenoceptor ...

In rings of rabbit facial vein (RFV), depletion of sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ by caffeine abolished the subsequent isometric contraction to 25 mM K+ physiological salt solution (25K-PSS). However, the associated steady-state increase of smooth muscle intracellular free Ca2+concentration ([Ca2+]i), measured using fura PE3 and cuvette photometry, was not altered. Treatment with the specific...

Oscillatory rises in intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) are the pivotal signal in the fertilization of mammalian eggs. The spatiotemporal dynamics of [Ca2+]i rises in mouse eggs subjected to intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) were analysed by Ca2+ imaging and compared with those subjected to in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The first Ca2+ transient occurred 15-30 min after ICSI in mos...