Arachidonic acid-induced calcium signalling in human airway smooth muscle cells

The spatiotemporal distribution of Ca2+ signals evoked by arachidonic acid (AA) was investigated in human bronchial smooth muscle cells (SMC), using the single cell video imaging technique and Fura-2 as a fluorescent dye. Baseline Ca2+ levels were markedly heterogeneous in one and the same cell; the local Ca2 concentration laid between 90 +/- 11 and 215 +/- 18 nM (n = 15). AA (2 mM) induced propagating Ca2+ waves, travelling at a mean velocity of 18 +/- 3 microns/sec (n = 7). Ca2+ signals originated at discrete trigger zones, whose kinetic properties differed from those of neighbouring regions. Ca2+ in the trigger zones rose in two phases, with rates of 9.5 +/- 0.8 and 88 +/- 6 nM/sec (n = 17). A single cell frequently exhibited more than one trigger zones. In some cells, the wave did not reach all regions; such inert zones separated functionally the cell in independently active regions. Some regions presented Ca2+ signals that did not spread to the rest of the cell, forming isolated foci. The spatiotemporal variability of Ca2+ signals evoked by AA could result from the heterogeneity of Ca2+ homeostatic processes.