Inositol polyphosphates and intracellular calcium release

Ca2(+)-sensitivity of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate-mediated Ca2+ release in permeabilized pancreatic acinar cells

Hormonal and phorbol ester pretreatment of pancreatic acinar cells markedly decreases the Ins(1,4,5)P3-induced release of actively stored Ca2+ [Willems, Van Den Broek, Van Os & De Pont (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 9762-9767]. Inhibition occurred at an ambient free Ca2+ concentration of 0.1 microM, suggesting a receptor-mediated increase in Ca2(+)-sensitivity of the Ins(1,4,5)P3-operated Ca2+ channel. To test this hypothesis, the Ca2(+)-dependence of Ins(1,4,5)P3-induced Ca2+ release was investigated. In the presence of 0.2 microM free Ca2+, permeabilized cells accumulated 0.9 nmol of Ca2+/mg of acinar protein in an energy-dependent pool. Uptake into this pool increased 2.2- and 3.3-fold with 1.0 and 2.0 microM free Ca2+ respectively. At 0.2, 1.0 and 2.0 microM free Ca2+, Ins(1,4,5)P3 maximally released 0.53 (56%), 0.90 (44%) and 0.62 (20%) nmol of Ca2+/mg of acinar protein respectively. Corresponding half-maximal stimulatory Ins(1,4,5)P3 concentrations were calculated to be 0.5, 0.6 and 1.4 microM, suggesting that the affinity of Ins(1,4,5)P3 for its receptor decreases beyond 1.0 microM free Ca2+. The possibility that an inhibitory effect of sub-micromolar Ca2+ is being masked by the concomitant increase in size of the releasable store is excluded, since Ca2+ release from cells loaded in the presence of 0.1 or 0.2 microM free Ca2+ and stimulated at higher ambient free Ca2+ was not inhibited below 1.0 microM free Ca2+. At 2.0 and 10.0 microM free Ca2+, Ca2+, Ca2+ release was inhibited by approx. 30% and 75% respectively. The results presented show that hormonal pretreatment does not lead to an increase in Ca2(+)-sensitivity of the release mechanism. Such an increase in Ca2(+)-sensitivity to sub-micromolar Ca2+ is required to explain sub-micromolar oscillatory changes in cytosolic free Ca2+ by a Ca2(+)-dependent negative-feedback mechanism.

Angiotensin II effects on the cytosolic free Ca2+ concentration in N1E-115 neuroblastoma cells: kinetic properties of the Ca2+ transient measured in single fura-2-loaded cells

The effect of angiotensin II on the cytosolic free Ca2+ concentration was measured in single mouse neuroblastoma N1E-115 cells loaded with fura-2. Angiotensin II induced a transient concentration-dependent increase in Ca2+ and also increased the production of inositol polyphosphates. The Ca2+ increase did not require extracellular Ca2+ and was unaffected by pretreatment with pertussis toxin. These data suggest that angiotensin II increased Ca2+ by an inositol trisphosphate-mediated release of intracellular Ca2+ following activation of phospholipase C via a pertussis toxin-insensitive guanine nucleotide binding protein. Similar results were obtained with bradykinin. The angiotensin II- or bradykinin-induced increase in Ca2+ occurred after a concentration-dependent latent period. Low concentrations of agonist elicited a small increase in Ca2+ following a variable lag that sometimes exceeded 1 min, whereas at maximally effective angiotensin II concentrations a larger, more rapid increase in Ca2+ occurred without a measurable delay. In some cells, oscillatory increases in Ca2+ were induced by angiotensin II and bradykinin. Possible mechanisms to explain the concentration dependency of the latent period and the oscillatory nature of the increases of Ca2+ are discussed. These results indicate that the mouse neuroblastoma N1E-115 cell represents a useful model for studying the signal response transduction mechanisms regulating the effects of angiotensin II in neuronal cells.