Glutamate induces excitotoxic damage to hippocampal pyramidal neurons in Status Epilepticus (SE) and epilepsy. In this study, we investigated time course of dysregulation of calcium homeostasis at various intervals after an episode of SE in acutely isolated CA1hippocampal pyramidal. For this purpose, male Sprague-Dawley rats (200 g) were subjected to pilocarpine-induced SE. The SE was blocked a...

Dendritic spines are believed to be micro-compartments of Ca(2+) regulation. In a recent study, it was suggested that the ubiquitous and evolutionarily conserved Ca(2+) sensor, calmodulin (CaM), is the first to intercept Ca(2+) entering the spine and might be responsible for the fast decay of Ca(2+) transients in spines. Neuronal calcium sensor (NCS) and neuronal calcium-binding protein (nCaBP)...

Mast cell degranulation is a highly regulated, calcium-dependent process, which is important for the acute release of inflammatory mediators during the course of many pathological conditions. We previously found that Synaptotagmin-2, a calcium sensor in neuronal exocytosis, was expressed in a mast cell line. We postulated that this protein may be involved in the control of mast cell-regulated e...

Intracellular free calcium concentration [Ca ] has been extensively studied as a major feedback element, transducing endogenous levels of electrical activity into an intracellular signal, in the context of modeling activity-dependent changes of ionic conductances of a neuronal membrane patch through slow biochemical subcellular mechanisms. However, distinct patterns of activity may induce simil...

The salt-tolerance gene SOS3 (salt overly sensitive 3) of Arabidopsis thaliana encodes a calcium-binding protein that is able to sense the cytosolic calcium signal elicited by salt stress. SOS3 activates the SOS2 protein kinase, which activates various ion transporters. SOS3 was cloned into a plasmid and expressed in Escherichia coli, allowing purification of the protein to homogeneity. Two cry...

Molecular components of store-operated calcium entry have been identified in the recent past and consist of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane-resident calcium sensor STIM and the plasma membrane-localized calcium channel Orai. The physiological function of STIM and Orai is best defined in vertebrate immune cells. However, genetic studies with RNAi strains in Drosophila suggest a role in n...

To understand the calcium-mediated signalling pathways underlying settlement and metamorphosis in the Scleractinian coral Acropora millepora, a predicted protein set derived from larval cDNAs was scanned for the presence of EF-hand domains (Pfam Id: PF00036). This approach led to the identification of a canonical calmodulin (AmCaM) protein and an uncharacterised member of the Neuronal Calcium S...

Transcriptional regulation by Store-operated Calcium Entry (SOCE) is well studied in non-excitable cells. However, the role of SOCE has been poorly documented in neuronal cells with more complicated calcium dynamics. Previous reports demonstrated a requirement for SOCE in neurons that regulate Drosophila flight bouts. We refine this requirement temporally to the early pupal stage and use RNA-se...

Potassium (K(+)) channels influence neurotransmitter release, burst firing rate activity, pacing, and critical dampening of neuronal circuits. Internal and external factors that further modify K(+) channel function permit fine-tuning of neuronal circuits. Human ether-à-go-go-related gene (HERG) K(+) channels are unusually sensitive to external calcium concentration ([Ca(2+)](o)). Small changes ...