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Measurements Of Cytosolic Free Ca In Cultured Rat Neonate And Adult Guinea-Pig Ventricular Cardiac Myocytes, Jean-Claude Bernengo, Fouad Lemtiri-Chlieh, Carlos Ojeda, Nadine Pltonoff

fouad Lemtiri-Chlieh

Cytosolic free Ca was measured with Indo-1 (Grynkiewicz et al. 1985) as free acid (in guinea-pig cells) or as the ester (in rat neonate cells). Using image analysis we obtained concentration maps at 40 ms intervals at two wavelengths (Cannell et al. 1986). In rat neonate cells, at rest and during contraction, calcium was apparently non-uniformly distributed, in contrast to guinea-pig adult cells. Using a dual PM spectroscopic system adapted to an inverted microscope we found: (1) the conversion of Indo-AM to Indo- 1 in the cytosol is not complete (< 40% contribution to the total light); (2) rat neonate cells buffer Ca (at rest 130-170 nM) only for [Ca]. between 1 and 3 mM, whereas in adult guinea-pig cells the range extended to 10 mM; (3) during contraction [Ca]i rose from 200 nm to no more than 1 microM. Digitoxin increases basal and peak [Ca]i; (4) during spontaneous contractions, in guinea-pig cells, [Ca]i rises from 70 to 200 nm when [Ca]o = 0, and from 170 nm to about 1 microM when [Ca]o = 2 mM; (5) in voltage-clamp conditions the rise in [Ca]i does not exceed 2 microM and oscillations occur in the presence of forskolin. When loading with Indo-1, cells frequently cease to contract (Powell et al. 1988) and the variations in [Ca]i are then very small (about 200 nm at peak ICa). In both cases these values are small compared to the total charge crossing the membrane.