Abstract
Calcium ions entering cells via voltage-dependent calcium channels play a fundamental role in many cellular processes. For instance, calcium is involved in both synaptic transmission and hormone release in neuronal and secretory cells. In many excitable cells, calcium ions act as a charge carrier. Calcium ions activate the contractile machinery of both heart and skeletal muscle. In heart the slow inward Ca current is critically involved in maintaining the normal rhythmicity needed to keep the heart beating. As can be seen from the few examples listed above, Ca channels play a dual role in many excitable cells. They are capable of responding to and influencing a cell’s electrical properties; in many cells the Ca channels alone, or in combination with sodium channels, generate the cellular action potentials. The Ca channels’ second function is that of a transducer. By opening or closing in response to the cell membrane potential they help regulate on a millisecond time scale the influx of calcium ions, one of the best characterized intracellular second messengers, into the cell. Elevated intracellular levels of calcium will activate other ion channels, such as Ca-dependent K channels or Ca-dependent non-selective channels, leading to complex electrical behaviors. It is also possible that calcium entering the cell through Ca channels may be involved in modulating a variety of cellular processes including Ca-dependent enzyme systems such as Ca/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase, or protein kinase C. (Hagiwara and Byerly (1981, 1983), Pallotta, Magleby and Barrett (1982), Yellen (1982), Carafoli (1983), Reuter (1983), Hille (1984), Nishizuka (1984, 1986), Carafoli and Penniston (1985), Tsien (1986)).
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© 1988 Plenum Press, New York
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Fox, A.P. et al. (1988). Physiology of Multiple Calcium Channels. In: Grinnell, A.D., Armstrong, D., Jackson, M.B. (eds) Calcium and Ion Channel Modulation. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0975-8_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0975-8_6
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