Calcium-sensing receptor: a sensor and mediator of ischemic preconditioning in the heart

As a G protein-coupled receptor, the extracellular Ca(2+)-sensing receptor (CaSR) responds to changes not only in extracellular Ca(2+), but also to many other ligands. CaSR has been found to be expressed in the hearts and cardiovascular system. In this study, we confirmed that CaSR is expressed in mouse cardiomyocytes and showed that it is predominantly localized in caveolae. The goal of this study was to investigate whether CaSR plays a cardioprotective role in ischemic preconditioning (IPC). Hearts from C57BL/6J mice (male, 12-16 wk) were perfused in the Langendorff mode and subjected to the following treatments: 1) control perfusion; 2) perfusion with a specific CaSR antagonist, NPS2143; 3) IPC (four cycles of 5 min of global ischemia and 5 min of reperfusion); or 4) perfusion with NPS2143 before and during IPC. Following these treatments, hearts were subjected to 20 min of no-flow global ischemia and 120 min of reperfusion. Compared with control, IPC significantly improved postischemic left ventricular functional recovery and reduced infarct size. Although NPS2143 perfusion alone did not change the hemodynamic function and did not change the extent of postischemic injury, NPS2143 treatment abolished cardioprotection of IPC. Through immunoblot analysis, it was demonstrated that IPC significantly increased the levels of phosphorylated ERK1/2, AKT, and GSK-3β, which were also prevented by NPS2143 treatment. Taken together, the distribution of CaSR in caveolae along with NPS2143-blockade of IPC-induced cardioprotective signaling suggest that the activation of CaSR during IPC is cardioprotective by a process involving caveolae.