Predetermined recruitment of calcium release sites underlies excitation‐contraction coupling in rat atrial myocytes

1 Excitation‐contraction coupling (E‐C coupling) was studied in isolated fluo‐3‐loaded rat atrial myocytes at 22 and 37°C using rapid confocal microscopy. 2 Within a few milliseconds of electrical excitation, spatially discrete subsarcolemmal Ca 2+ signals were initiated. Twenty to forty milliseconds after stimulation the spatial overlap of these Ca 2+ signals gave a ‘ring’ of elevated Ca 2+ around the periphery of the cells. However, this ring was not continuous and substantial Ca 2+ gradients were observed. 3 The discrete subsarcolemmal Ca 2+ ‐release sites, which responded in a reproducible sequence to repetitive depolarisations and displayed the highest frequencies of spontaneous Ca 2+ sparks in resting cells, were denoted ‘eager sites’. 4 Immunostaining atrial myocytes for type II ryanodine receptors (RyRs) revealed both subsarcolemmal ‘junctional’ RyRs, and also ‘non‐junctional’ RyRs in the central bulk of the cells. A subset of the junctional RyRs comprises the eager sites. 5 For cells paced in the presence of 1 mM extracellular Ca 2+ , the response was largely restricted to a subsarcolemmal ‘ring’, while the central bulk of the cell displayed a ≈5‐fold lower Ca 2+ signal. Under these conditions the non‐junctional RyRs were only weakly activated during E‐C coupling. However, these channels are functional and the Ca 2+ stores were at least partially loaded, since substantial homogeneous Ca 2+ signals could be stimulated in the central regions of atrial myocytes by application of 2·5 mM caffeine. 6 Neither the location nor activation order of the eager sites was affected by increasing the trigger Ca 2+ current (by increasing extracellular Ca 2+ to 10 mM) or the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca 2+ load (following 1 min incubation in 10 mM extracellular Ca 2+ ), although with increased SR Ca 2+ load, but not greater Ca 2+ influx, the delay between the sequential activation of eager sites was reduced. In addition, increasing the trigger Ca 2+ current or the SR Ca 2+ load changed the spatial pattern of the Ca 2+ response, in that the Ca 2+ signal propagated more reliably from the subsarcolemmal initiation sites into the centre of the cell. Due to the greater spatial spread of the Ca 2+ signals, the averaged global Ca 2+ transients increased by ≈500 %. 7 We conclude that rat atrial myocytes display a predetermined spatiotemporal pattern of Ca 2+ signalling during early E‐C coupling. A consistent set of eager Ca 2+ release sites with a fixed location and activation order on the junctional SR serve to initiate the cellular response. The short latency for activation of these eager sites suggests that they reflect clusters of RyRs closely coupled to voltage‐operated Ca 2+ channels in the sarcolemma. Furthermore, their propensity to show spontaneous Ca 2+ sparks is consistent with an intrinsically higher sensitivity to Ca 2+ ‐induced Ca 2+ release. While the subsarcolemmal Ca 2+ response can be considered as stereotypic, the central bulk of the cell grades its response in direct proportion to cellular Ca 2+ load and Ca 2+ influx.