Published in Advances in experimental medicine and biology
Imaging techniques may overcome the limitations of electrode techniques to measure locally not only membrane potential changes, but also ionic currents. Here, we review a recently developed approach to image native neuronal Ca2+ currents from brain slices. The technique is based on combined fluorescence recordings using low-affinity Ca2+ indicators...
Published in Advances in experimental medicine and biology
Ryanodine receptor calcium release channels (RyRs) play central roles in controlling intracellular calcium concentrations in excitable and non-excitable cells. RyRs are located in the sarcoplasmic or endoplasmic reticulum, intracellular Ca2+ storage compartment, and release Ca2+ during cellular action potentials or in response to other cellular sti...
Published in Advances in experimental medicine and biology
The aim of this chapter is to discuss evidence concerning the many roles of calcium ions, Ca2+, in cell signaling pathways that control heart function. Before considering details of these signaling pathways, the control of contraction in ventricular muscle by Ca2+ transients accompanying cardiac action potentials is first summarized, together with ...
Published in Advances in experimental medicine and biology
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) offer great promise in the areas of disease modeling, basic research, drug development, and regenerative medicine. Much of their value comes from the fact that they can be used to create otherwise inaccessible cell types, such as cardiomyocytes, which are genetically matched to a patient or any other individua...
Published in Advances in experimental medicine and biology
Drosophila melanogaster, colloquially known as the fruit fly, is one of the most commonly used model organisms in scientific research. Although the final architecture of a fly and a human differs greatly, most of the fundamental biological mechanisms and pathways controlling development and survival are conserved through evolution between the two s...
Published in Advances in experimental medicine and biology
Insulin secretion in humans is usually induced by mixed meals, which upon ingestion, increase the plasma concentration of glucose, fatty acids, amino acids, and incretins like glucagon-like peptide 1. Beta-cells can stay in the off-mode, ready-mode or on-mode; the mode-switching being determined by the open state probability of the ATP-sensitive po...
Published in Advances in experimental medicine and biology
Store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE) is a ubiquitous mechanism for Ca2+ influx in mammalian cells with important physiological implications. Since the discovery of SOCE more than three decades ago, the mechanism that communicates the information about the amount of Ca2+ accumulated in the intracellular Ca2+ stores to the plasma membrane channels and th...
Published in Advances in experimental medicine and biology
Calcium (Ca2+) is a fundamental regulator of cell fate and intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis is crucial for proper function of the nerve cells. Given the complexity of neurons, a constellation of mechanisms finely tunes the intracellular Ca2+ signaling. We are focusing on the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum (SR/ER) calcium (Ca2+)-ATPase (SERCA) pump, an i...
Published in Advances in experimental medicine and biology
All seven canonical transient potential receptor (TRPC1-7) channel members are expressed in mammalian airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs). Among this family, TRPC3 channel plays an important role in the control of the resting [Ca2+]i and agonist-induced increase in [Ca2+]i. This channel is significantly upregulated in molecular expression and functi...
Published in Advances in experimental medicine and biology
Calcium signaling regulates secretion of hormones and many other cellular processes in the islets of Langerhans. The three subtypes of the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors (IP3Rs), inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor type 1 (IP3R1), 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor type 2 (IP3R2), 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor type 3 (IP3R3), and the three subty...
