J Physiol Volume 586, Number 2, 605-626, January 15, 2008 DOI: 10.1113/jphysiol.2007.143339
Discrete influx events refill depleted Ca2+ stores in a chick retinal neuron
Salvador Borges,
Sarah Lindstrom,
Cameron Walters,
Ajithkumar Warrier and
Martin Wilson
The depletion of ER Ca2+ stores, following the release of Ca2+ during intracellular signalling, triggers the Ca2+ entry across the plasma membrane known as store-operated calcium entry (SOCE). We show here that brief, local [Ca2+]i increases (motes) in the thin dendrites of cultured retinal amacrine cells derived from chick embryos represent the Ca2+ entry events of SOCE and are initiated by sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), a sphingolipid with multiple cellular signalling roles. Externally applied S1P elicits motes but not through a G protein-coupled membrane receptor. The endogenous precursor to S1P, sphingosine, also elicits motes but its action is suppressed by dimethylsphingosine (DMS), an inhibitor of sphingosine phosphorylation. DMS also suppresses motes induced by store depletion and retards the refilling of depleted stores. These effects are reversed by exogenously applied S1P. In these neurons formation of S1P is a step in the SOCE pathway that promotes Ca2+ entry in the form of motes.
(Received 17 August 2007;
accepted after revision 15 November 2007;
first published online 22 November 2007)
Copyright © 2008 The Physiological Society.