Abstract
Various types of cells use changes in intracellular calcium triggered by hormones, neurotransmitters or growth factors as a second messenger to trigger a variety of intracellular responses, including contraction, secretion, growth and differentiation. One of the earliest experiments that revealed the complexity of the calcium response is that due to Woods et al.(1986), who studied the response of hepatocytes to vasopressin, a hormone that mobilizes intracellular calcium. They found that over the range of 200 nM to 1 μM in the hormone concentration, stimuli evoke repetitive spikes in the intracellular calcium concentration, rather than simply elevating the level of calcium. Moreover, they found that as the hormone concentration was raised, the frequency of spiking increased, but the amplitude remained nearly constant. Thus the continuously-graded (analog) extracellular hormone signal was converted into a frequency-encoded digital signal (the number of calcium spikes). Similar dynamic behavior has been found in a large number of cell types since then, and has lead to the suggestion that calcium spiking and frequency encoding must have a physiological role. Since high calcium levels are cytotoxic, it is necessary to maintain a low average concentration of calcium, but since calcium frequently serves primarily as a trigger for other processes, a transient elevation above a low mean concentration suffices for this purpose. Moreover, using a large transient increase as the trigger permits the use of a sharper threshold for response, and hence better noise discrimination. Other possible advantages are suggested by Meyer & Stryer (1991), but to date there is little hard evidence that the spiking plays an essential physiological role.
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Othmer, H.G., Tang, Y. (1993). Oscillations and Waves in a Model of InsP3-Controlled Calcium Dynamics. In: Othmer, H.G., Maini, P.K., Murray, J.D. (eds) Experimental and Theoretical Advances in Biological Pattern Formation. NATO ASI Series, vol 259. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2433-5_25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2433-5_25
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