measurement-calcium-fluctuations-within-sarcoplasmic-reticulum

Measurement of Calcium Fluctuations Within the Sarcoplasmic Reticulum of Cultured Smooth Muscle Cells Using FRET-based Confocal Imaging

Maintenance of steady-state calcium (Ca2+) levels in the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is vital to their overall ...

University of British Columbia

The aim of this study was a comparison of the outcomes of intrauterine myelomeningocele (MMC) repairs (IUMR) in type II Chiari malformation (II CM) fetuses with clinical data of newborns and infants operated on postnatally.

Comparison of prenatal and postnatal treatments of spina bifida in Poland--a non-randomized, single-center study.

Endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum stress and the unfolded protein response have been implicated as underlying mechanisms of cell death in many pathological conditions. We have confirmed that long-term exposure to 10µM tunicamycin induced the endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum stress in cultured vascular smooth muscle cells. Since tunicamycin is reported to induce the stress response by inhibiting protein glycosylation, we attempted to investigate a causal link between accumulation of unfolded proteins and dysregulation of cellular calcium transport. However, we found that tunicamycin caused an immediate release of calcium from the endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum, which was sensitive to thapsigargin, and an influx of calcium through the plasma membrane, resulting in a significant increase in cytoplasmic calcium and depletion of endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium. Furthermore, we observed that tunicamycin also induced contraction in intact vascular smooth muscle. By applying established procedures and antagonists, we established that tunicamycin did not directly activate physiological calcium channels, such as store-operated channels, voltage gated calcium channels, ryanodine receptors or inositol trisphosphate receptors. Instead, we found that its effects on cellular calcium fluxes closely resembled those of the known calcium ionophore, ionomycin. We have concluded that tunicamycin directly permeabilizes the plasma membrane and endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum to calcium, and is, therefore, inappropriate for studying the relationship between accumulation of unfolded proteins and endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium dysregulation during the endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum stress response. In contrast, we also report that two other well-known endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum stress inducers, brefeldin A and dithiothreitol, did not exhibit similar increases in calcium permeability.

Calcium regulation in aortic smooth muscle cells during the initial phase of tunicamycin-induced endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum stress.

The present study addresses the causal relationship between induction of endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum stress and dysregulation of calcium transport, while examining whether the most widely-used experimental endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum stressors can be considered appropriate for elucidating underlying cellular mechanisms involved during the progression of the unfolded protein response in vascular smooth muscle cells. Brefeldin A is most commonly cited as inducing the stress response through an accumulation of unfolded proteins in the lumen as a result of a blockage of protein transport from the endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi apparatus. We investigated the effects of Brefeldin A on cellular calcium regulation during the the unfolded protein response in cultured rat vascular smooth muscle cells. Acute exposure of cells to Brefeldin A caused a small transient increase in cytoplasmic calcium, which did not cause a significant decrease in endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium content. However, over the time course of 0-12 h post-treatment with Brefeldin A, we observed that the endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum of vascular smooth muscle cells exhibited an approximate fifty percent decrease in calcium concentration after the first hour of exposure, which is maintained over the next eleven hours, whereas concentrations of unfolded protein response markers only began to increase significantly around nine to twelve hours post-treatment. We have concluded that the endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium drop, which up to now, has been considered as a characteristic of the late onset of cellular stress response, occurs prior to the initiation of the unfolded protein response, rather than as a result of its many corrective pathways.

Article	Year
Comparison of prenatal and postnatal treatments of spina bifida in Poland--a non-randomized, single-center study. The journal of maternal-fetal & neonatal medicine : the official journal of the European Association of Perinatal Medicine, the Federation of Asia and Oceania Perinatal Societies, the International Society of Perinatal Obstetricians\| PubMed ID: 24156622	2014
Calcium regulation in aortic smooth muscle cells during the initial phase of tunicamycin-induced endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum stress. European journal of pharmacology\| PubMed ID: 24769510	2014
Drop in endo/sarcoplasmic calcium precedes the unfolded protein response in Brefeldin A-treated vascular smooth muscle cells. European journal of pharmacology\| PubMed ID: 26172080	2015

Gabriela Ziomek

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