Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 18, 2025

Fluorescence-based Measurement of Store-operated Calcium Entry in Live Cells: from Cultured Cancer Cell to Skeletal Muscle Fiber
Published on: February 13, 2012
Store-Operated Calcium Entry in Skeletal Muscle: What Makes It Different?
Elena Lilliu1, Stéphane Koenig2, Xaver Koenig1
1Center for Physiology and Pharmacology, Department of Neurophysiology and Pharmacology, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
None:
Current knowledge on store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE) regarding its localization, kinetics, and regulation is mostly derived from studies performed in non-excitable cells. After a long time of relative disinterest in skeletal muscle SOCE, this mechanism is now recognized as an essential contributor to muscle physiology, as highlighted by the muscle pathologies that are associated with mutations in the SOCE molecules STIM1 and Orai1. This review mainly focuses on the peculiar aspects of skeletal muscle SOCE that differentiate it from its counterpart found in non-excitable cells. This includes questions about SOCE localization and the movement of respective proteins in the highly organized skeletal muscle fibers, as well as the diversity of expressed STIM isoforms and their differential expression between muscle fiber types. The emerging evidence of a phasic SOCE, which is activated during EC coupling, and its physiological implication is described as well. The specific issues related to the use of SOCE modulators in skeletal muscles are discussed. This review highlights the complexity of SOCE activation and its regulation in skeletal muscle, with an emphasis on the most recent findings and the aim to reach a current picture of this mesmerizing phenomenon.
Related Concept Videos
Relaxation of Skeletal Muscles
When an action potential reaches the axon terminal, it depolarizes the membrane and opens voltage-gated sodium channels. Sodium ions enter the cell, further depolarizing the presynaptic membrane. This depolarization causes voltage-gated calcium channels to open....
Feedback 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...
Smooth Muscle Contraction
The onset of contraction is triggered by an increase in calcium ions within the sarcoplasm, similar to the process in striated muscle. However, smooth muscles have a relatively smaller reservoir of the sarcoplasmic...
Cross-bridge Cycle
Overview of Skeletal Muscle
Excitation-Contraction Coupling in Skeletal Muscles
When an action...

