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Updated: Mar 2, 2026

Measurement of Total Calcium in Neurons by Electron Probe X-ray Microanalysis
Published on: November 20, 2013
Selective dopamine receptor 4 activation mediates the hippocampal neuronal calcium response via IP3 and ryanodine
Ya-Li Wang1, Jian-Gang Wang2, Fang-Li Guo3
1Department of Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medicine and the Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education of China for Neurological Disorders, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, PR China; Henan Province Key Laboratory of Brain Research, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan 453003, PR China.
Abstract:
Intracellular calcium is a key factor in most cellular processes, including cell growth, differentiation, proliferation and neurotransmitter release. Dopamine (DA) mediates synaptic transmission by regulating the intracellular calcium content. It is not clear, however, which specific subunit of the DA receptor contributes to DA modulation of intracellular calcium content changes. Through the traditional technique of Fura-2 calcium imaging, this study demonstrated that the DA can induce transient calcium in cultured hippocampal neurons and that this response can be mimicked by a selective dopamine receptor 4 (DR4) agonist PD168077 (PD). PD-induced calcium transience can be blocked by a calcium chelator, such as BAPTA-AM, or by pre-treatment of neurons with thapsigargin, a IP3 receptor antagonist, or a micromolar concentration of ryanodine, a ryanodine receptor (RyR) antagonist. However PD-induced calcium transience cannot be blocked by pre-treatment of neurons with a free-calcium medium or a cocktail of NMDA receptor, L-type calcium channel and alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor blockers. These results indicate that the calcium response induced by DR4 activation is mainly through activation of IP3 receptor in internal stores, which is likely to contribute to the DA modulation of synaptic transmission and cognitive function.
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