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Updated: Aug 13, 2026
Mechanical Stimulation-induced Calcium Wave Propagation in Cell Monolayers: The Example of Bovine Corneal Endothelial Cells
Published on: July 16, 2013
Electrical bursting and luminal calcium oscillation in excitable cell models
1Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA.
Abstract:
It is shown in this paper that electrical bursting and the oscillations in the intracellular calcium concentration, [Ca2+]i, observed in excitable cells such as pancreatic beta-cells and R-15 cells of the mollusk Aplysia may be driven by a slow oscillation of the calcium concentration in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum, [Ca2+]lum. This hypothesis follows from the inclusion of the dynamic changes of [Ca2+]lum in the Chay bursting model. This extended model provides answers to some puzzling phenomena, such as why isolated single pancreatic beta-cells burst with a low frequency while intact beta-cells in an islet burst with a much higher frequency. Verification of the model prediction that [Ca2+]lum is a primary oscillator which drives electrical bursting and [Ca2+]i oscillations in these cells awaits experimental testing. Experiments using fluorescent dyes such as mag-fura-2-AM or aequorin could provide relevant information.
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