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Intracellular Ionic Calcium and the Cytoskeleton in Living Cells
Author(s) -
SHELANSKI MICHAEL L.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1989.tb12498.x
Subject(s) - calcium , cytoplasm , microbiology and biotechnology , aequorin , biophysics , chemistry , cytoskeleton , calcium in biology , endocytosis , mitosis , calcium signaling , calcium metabolism , biochemistry , biology , cell , organic chemistry
The calcium ion is present in the cytoplasm of living cells at resting concentrations of between 50 and 150 nanomolar while total cellular calcium concentrations, primarily bound non‐ionic calcium, are in the millimolar range. Over the past several decades this ion has been suggested to play a critical role in the control of a wide range of cellular functions including excitability, endocytosis, exocytosis, motility, and cell division. Attention has focused on calcium activation of various enzymes and on an expanding class of calcium‐binding proteins. Except for the case of electrophysiological responses, most of our insight into calcium control mechanisms has been derived from studies on cell fractions rather than intact cells. The exceptions to this have been those which have used cells large enough to penetrate with calcium‐sensitive ion selective electrodes or cells which have been injected with the calcium‐sensitive photoprotein aequorin. Both of these approaches have serious limitations to their application. In the past five years the development and exploitation of calcium‐sensitive fluorescent reporter dyes 1 has enabled the measurement of nanomolar concentrations of the cytoplasmic ionic calcium ([Ca 2+ ] i ) in living cells. In the studies reviewed here, I shall move away from the nervous system, which has been the focus of this symposium, to non‐neural cells in culture in order to discuss the possible role of the calcium ion in the local control of cytoskeletal function in interphase cells, in mitosis, and finally in Alzheimer's disease.