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...

This study examines the mechanisms of spontaneous and induced [Ca2+]i spiking in nerve growth cones and the effect of spikes on growth cone migration. Over a 10-20 min observation period, 29% of DRG growth cones undergo spontaneous and transient elevations in physiological extracellular Ca2+ ((Ca2+)o; 2 mM), whereas 67% of growth cones exposed to 20 mM (Ca2+)o exhibit similar [Ca2+]i spikes. Sp...

An increase in intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) has been shown to drive sea-urchin embryos and some fibroblasts through nuclear-envelope breakdown (NEBD) and the metaphase-to-anaphase transition. Mitotic Ca2+ transients can be pan-cellular global events or localized to the perinuclear region. It is not known whether Ca2+ is a universal regulator of mitosis or whether its role is confi...

Osteoclasts are multinucleated, bone-resorbing cells that show structural and functional differences between the resorbing and nonresorbing (motile) states during the bone resorption cycle. In the present study, we measured intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) in nonresorbing vs. resorbing rat osteoclasts. Basal [Ca2+]i in osteoclasts possessing pseudopodia (nonresorbing/motile state) was...

ATP and UTP cause mobilization of Ca2+ from the intracellular stores with similar potency in several cell types including both undifferentiated and differentiated HL60 cells. We show here that, in HL60 cells with Ca2+ stores that had been fully and irreversibly emptied using the endomembrane Ca(2+)-ATPase inhibitor thapsigargin, both nucleotides produced a biphasic effect on Ca2+ entry, first r...