Calcium fluxes and calcium buffering in human neutrophils

Neutrophils loaded with the calcium indicator quin-2 and challenged with the ionophore ionomycin or the chemotactic peptide fMet-Leu-Phe were examined in the light of a theory that relates time-dependent changes in the fluorescence of the indicator to cytosolic calcium fluxes and levels. The cytosolic binding capacity was estimated from the theory to be 1.5 +/- 0.6 X 10(8) sites/cell (0.76 mM based on a cell volume of 330 micron 3, irrespective of water content and the distribution of sites), each site having an apparent average single class dissociation constant of 0.55 +/- 0.2 microM. Some 20% of the total available cytosolic calcium sites of the normal resting cell appear to be occupied when no quin-2 is present. In a calcium-free medium, the amount of calcium released by fMet-Leu-Phe from storage pool locations that are distinct from the cytosolic sites is sufficient to further raise the cytosolic site occupancy level to 50%, at which point the calcium buffering capacity of the cytosol is maximal. In a calcium-containing medium, however, simultaneous influx from the outside appears to supply enough additional calcium to saturate most of the remaining sites. The combined initial rate of storage pool calcium release plus influx through the plasma membrane was roughly twice the initial rate at which calcium was released from storage locations alone, suggesting that stimulus-induced influx from the outside may be comparable in importance to storage pool mobilization in determining physiological calcium levels in stimulated cells.