Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 17, 2026
Imaging Local Ca2+ Signals in Cultured Mammalian Cells
Published on: March 3, 2015
Relating a calcium indicator signal to the unperturbed calcium concentration time-course
Alexander Borst1, Henry D I Abarbanel
1Max-Planck-Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany. borst@neuro.mpg.de
Background:
Optical indicators of cytosolic calcium levels have become important experimental tools in systems and cellular neuroscience. Indicators are known to interfere with intracellular calcium levels by acting as additional buffers, and this may strongly alter the time-course of various dynamical variables to be measured.
Results:
By investigating the underlying reaction kinetics, we show that in some ranges of kinetic parameters one can explicitly link the time dependent indicator signal to the time-course of the calcium influx, and thus, to the unperturbed calcium level had there been no indicator in the cell.
Related Concept Videos
01:27Feedback Regulation of Calcium Concentration
Various transmembrane receptors, such as G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), elicit a response to extracellular signals by increasing cytosolic calcium. Activated GPCRs...
01:16Calmodulin-dependent Signaling
The Ca2+-CaM complex does not have enzymatic activity by itself. Instead, the complex binds downstream target proteins, including membrane proteins or enzymes,...