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Updated: Aug 16, 2026
Imaging Neuronal Responses in Slice Preparations of Vomeronasal Organ Expressing a Genetically Encoded Calcium Sensor
Published on: December 6, 2011
Cloned and expressed rat Ca2+-sensing receptor
M Ruat1, A M Snowman, L D Hester
1Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
Abstract:
We have stably expressed cDNA for the rat brain Ca2+ sensing receptor in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Stimulation of phosphatidylinositol hydrolysis and arachidonic acid (AA) release displayed markedly cooperative responses to Ca2+ with Hill coefficients of 4-5. Both phosphatidylinositol and AA responses were not detected below a threshold of 1.5 mM Ca2+. Mg2+ behaved as a partial agonist with only half the maximal inositol phosphate and AA responses displayed by Ca2+ and with a more shallow concentration-response slope. The potency of Mg2+ in augmenting inositol phosphate and AA responses, in the presence of 1.5 mM Ca2+, implies that serum Mg2+ concentrations attained in clinical conditions will influence the Ca2+-sensing receptor.
