Live Cell Calcium Imaging Combined with siRNA Mediated Gene Silencing Identifies Ca²⁺ Leak Channels in the ER Membrane and their Regulatory Mechanisms

JoVE 2730 7/07/2011

Sven Lang*¹, Nico Schäuble*¹, Adolfo Cavalié², Richard Zimmermann¹

¹Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saarland University, ²Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Saarland University

The endoplasmic reticulum plays a key role in protein biogenesis and in calcium homeostasis. We have established an experimental system that allows us to address the role of Ca2+ leak channels and to characterize their putative regulatory mechanisms. This system involves siRNA mediated gene silencing and live cell Ca2+ imaging.