I am doing calcium flux imaging with your Fura-2 calibration kit, but am seeing a large variability in ratio in different places around the slide. I am correcting for uniform illumination, using the product as directed, and sealing the coverslip with nail polish.
The nail polish may be the problem. The Kd value (calcium sensitivity) changes depending upon the dye's environment. Nail polish has solvents that can leech under the coverslip and cause variability. We recommend either going without a sealing or sealing with melted paraffin painted on the coverslip edges with a cotton-tipped applicator (paraffin is hydrophobic and has no solvents).
I need to label cells with Fluo-4, AM, for a calcium flux assay. How long after labeling will the dye be retained?
After loading dye into the cells, intracellular esterases remove the 'AM' moiety from the dye. When the 'AM' group is removed, the dye is able to bind calcium and fluoresce. Since the dye is not covalently bound to any cellular components, it may be actively effluxed from the cell. The rate of efflux is dependent upon the inherent properties of the cell, culture conditions and other factors. The dye may be retained for hours, days or even weeks or lost in a matter of minutes. The use of Probenecid (Cat. No. P36400) limits loss by active efflux.
The use of the indicator fluo-5N to measure sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium in single muscle fibres of the cane toad.
Authors:Kabbara AA, Allen DG
Journal:J Physiol
PubMed ID:11432994
'1. Single fibres from the lumbrical muscles of the cane toad (Bufo marinus) were incubated in fluo-5N AM for 2 h at 35 degrees C in order to load the indicator into the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Fluo-5N is a low-affinity calcium indicator (K(Ca) 90 microM). Successful sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) loading was ... More
Cardiac alternans do not rely on diastolic sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium content fluctuations.
Authors:Picht E, DeSantiago J, Blatter LA, Bers DM,
Journal:Circ Res
PubMed ID:16946134
'Cardiac alternans are thought to be a precursor to life-threatening arrhythmias. Previous studies suggested that alterations in sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ content are either causative or not associated with myocyte Ca2+ alternans. However, those studies used indirect measures of SR Ca2+. Here we used direct continuous measurement of intra-SR free ... More
Kinesin dependent, rapid, bi-directional transport of ER sub-compartment in dendrites of hippocampal neurons.
Authors:Bannai H, Inoue T, Nakayama T, Hattori M, Mikoshiba K
Journal:J Cell Sci
PubMed ID:14676272
'Although spatially restricted Ca2+ release from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) through intracellular Ca2+ channels plays important roles in various neuronal activities, the accurate distribution and dynamics of ER in the dendrite of living neurons still remain unknown. To elucidate these, we expressed fluorescent protein-tagged ER proteins in cultured mouse hippocampal ... More
Ca2+ blinks: rapid nanoscopic store calcium signaling.
Authors:Brochet DX, Yang D, Di Maio A, Lederer WJ, Franzini-Armstrong C, Cheng H
Journal:Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
PubMed ID:15710901
'Luminal Ca(2+) in the endoplasmic and sarcoplasmic reticulum (ER/SR) plays an important role in regulating vital biological processes, including store-operated capacitative Ca(2+) entry, Ca(2+)-induced Ca(2+) release, and ER/SR stress-mediated cell death. We report rapid and substantial decreases in luminal [Ca(2+)], called "Ca(2+) blinks," within nanometer-sized stores (the junctional cisternae of ... More
Sulfhydryl oxidation overrides Mg(2+) inhibition of calcium-induced calcium release in skeletal muscle triads.
Authors:Donoso P, Aracena P, Hidalgo C
Journal:Biophys J
PubMed ID:10866954
'We studied the effect of oxidation of sulfhydryl (SH) residues on the inhibition by Mg(2+) of calcium-induced calcium release (CICR) in triad-enriched sarcoplasmic reticulum vesicles isolated from rabbit skeletal muscle. Vesicles were either passively or actively loaded with calcium before eliciting CICR by dilution at pCa 4.6-4.4 in the presence ... More