The influence of Ca²⁺ buffers on free [Ca²⁺] fluctuations and the effective volume of Ca²⁺ microdomains.

ABSTRACT: Intracellular calcium (Ca(2+)) plays a significant role in many cell signaling pathways, some of which are localized to spatially restricted microdomains. Ca(2+) binding proteins (Ca(2+) buffers) play an important role in regulating Ca(2+) concentration ([Ca(2+)]). Buffers typically slow [Ca(2+)] temporal dynamics and increase the effective volume of Ca(2+) domains. Because fluctuations in [Ca(2+)] decrease in proportion to the square-root of a domain's physical volume, one might conjecture that buffers decrease [Ca(2+)] fluctuations and, consequently, mitigate the significance of small domain volume concerning Ca(2+) signaling. We test this hypothesis through mathematical and computational analysis of idealized buffer-containing domains and their stochastic dynamics during free Ca(2+) inf

SUBMITTER: Weinberg SH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4070277 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature