Intracellular calcium stores in chick cerebellum purkinje neurons: ontogenetic and functional studies. Sacchetto, Roberta, Kenneth D. Cliffer, Paola Podini, Antonello Villa, Burgess N. Christensen, and Pompeo Volpe. Centro di Studio per la Biologia e la Fisiopatologia Muscolare del CNR, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche Sperimentali dell'Universit[grave]a di Padova, 35121 Padova, Dipartimento di Farmacologia dell'Universit[grave]a di Milano, Dibit Istituto Scientifico San Raffaele, 20132 Milano, Istituto Pluridisciplinare di Patologia Generale dell'Universit[grave]a di Messina, 98100 Messina, Italy, and Department of Physiology and Biophysics, UTMB, Galveston, 77555 Texas, USA
APStracts 2:0188C, 1995.
Molecular composition of intracellular Ca2+ stores in developing chicken cerebellum Purkinje neurons, from embryonic day 11 to posthatching day 2, was studied by immunocytochemistry using specific antibodies for three molecular constituents, the receptor(R)/channel sensitive to inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3), Ca2+-ATPase, and calsequestrin (CS). CS, IP3R and Ca2+-ATPase were first detected, by light microscopy immunofluorescence, in migrating Purkinje cells at E11-E12 and throughout late phases of embryonic development. Ontogenesis of CS, IP3R, and Ca2+-ATPase accompanied well defined stages of cerebellum histogenesis and cytogenesis and was accomplished before hatching. High-resolution immunogold electronmicroscopy revealed that at E18-P1 CS was still largely distributed to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) lumen and began to be segregated to ER subcompartments (calciosomes) only by P2, whereas the IP3R was concentrated into ER cisternal stacks as early as E18. Both ionotropic and metabotropic plasma membrane receptors were present in dissociated, single chicken Purkinje cells from E16 onward, as indicated by measurements of membrane currents (whole-cell recording mode) and of cytoplasmic Ca2+ transients, monitored with the cell-trappable fluorescent indicator fura-2 AM, respectively. Cytoplasmic Ca2+ transients were detected following either activation of glutamate metabotropic receptors, i.e., evidence of IP3-sensitive Ca2+ channels, or application of caffeine, i.e., evidence of ryanodine-sensitive Ca2+ channels. Intracellular Ca2+ stores appear to be functional during embryonic development.

Received 5 December 1994; accepted in final form 19 April 1995.
APS Manuscript Number C706-4.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Cell Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 16 May 1995.