The elemental principles of calcium signaling

Bootman, Martin D. and Berridge, Michael J. (1995). The elemental principles of calcium signaling. Cell, 83(5) pp. 675–678.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674(95)90179-5

Abstract

Complexity of Intracellular Ca²⁺ Signals

Ca²⁺ is a ubiquitous intracellular signaling molecule controlling a wide array of cellular processes, including secretion, contraction, and cell proliferation (Berridge, 1993; Clapham, 1995). In resting cells, the intracellular Ca²⁺ concentration ([Ca²⁺]_i) is maintained at approximately 10-100 nM, and during stimulation the average [Ca²⁺]_i can rise up to several micromolar, depending on the cell type. Such Ca²⁺ signals have acomplex temporal and spatial arrangement, although the mechanisms underlying the complexity are not entirely clear. Tonic [Ca²⁺]_i, increases do not occur in many cells. Instead, Ca²⁺ is frequently presented to the cytoplasm in a pulsatile manner, such as the repetitive Ca²⁺ spikes that drive the beating heart, the rapid subplasmalemmal [Ca²⁺]_i increases that occur during depolarization of excitable cells, and the regular Ca²⁺ spikes (or oscillations) observed during hormonal stimulation of many nonexcitable cell types. The spatial correlate of a Ca²⁺ spike is a Ca²⁺ wave in which Ca²⁺ is initially elevated in a discrete region of the cell before spreading throughout the cell as a regenerative increase. Since information is encoded in the spatiotemporal patterns of these intracellular signals, much interest is now focused on how these complex Ca²⁺ signals are generated.

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