Propagating calcium waves initiated by local caffeine application in rat ventricular myocytes

A. W. Trafford, P. Lipp, Stephen O'Neill, E. Niggli, David Eisner

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    1. Caffeine was applied locally to one region of a resting cell via an extracellular pipette while simultaneously imaging the concentrations of intracellular calcium ([Ca2+](i)) and intracellular caffeine ([caffeine](i)). 2. Local application of caffeine produced a rise of [caffeine](i) which was confined to the region of the cell near the pipette. There was also a local increase of Ca2+](i) which then, in most resting cells, propagated along the cell as a linear Ca2+ wave. The initial magnitude of the rise of [Ca2+](i) was greater than that of the electrically stimulated Ca2+ transient. 3. As the wave of increase of [Ca2+(i), propagated along the cell it decreased in both amplitude and velocity in cells that had not been treated to elevate the cellular Ca2+ load. 4. In some cells the caffeine response did not propagate significantly. In these cases an increase of the cellular Ca2+ load enabled caffeine-induced Ca2+ wave propagation along the entire cell length without significant decay in amplitude and velocity. 5. Previous work has shown that an electrically evoked local systolic Ca2+ transient does not propagate. The fact that the caffeine-evoked response does propagate and the correlation between decay of amplitude and velocity suggest that the transient has to be a certain size before it can propagate. It is suggested that one of the factors which favour propagation of waves under conditions of elevated sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ content is the increased release of Ca2+.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)319-326
    Number of pages7
    JournalJournal of Physiology
    Volume489
    Issue number2
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 1995

    Keywords

    • Animals
    • pharmacology: Caffeine
    • metabolism: Calcium
    • Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
    • Electric Stimulation
    • drug effects: Heart
    • Microscopy, Confocal
    • Rats
    • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

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