How does intracellular Ca2+ oscillate: by chance or by the clock?

Biophys J. 2008 Mar 15;94(6):2404-11. doi: 10.1529/biophysj.107.119495. Epub 2007 Dec 7.

Abstract

Ca2+ oscillations have been considered to obey deterministic dynamics for almost two decades. We show for four cell types that Ca2+ oscillations are instead a sequence of random spikes. The standard deviation of the interspike intervals (ISIs) of individual spike trains is similar to the average ISI; it increases approximately linearly with the average ISI; and consecutive ISIs are uncorrelated. Decreasing the effective diffusion coefficient of free Ca2+ using Ca2+ buffers increases the average ISI and the standard deviation in agreement with the idea that individual spikes are caused by random wave nucleation. Array-enhanced coherence resonance leads to regular Ca2+ oscillations with small standard deviation of ISIs.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Action Potentials
  • Animals
  • Biophysics / methods*
  • Calcium / metabolism*
  • Calcium Signaling
  • Cell Membrane / metabolism*
  • Diffusion
  • Electrophysiology / methods
  • Humans
  • Models, Biological
  • Neurons
  • Oscillometry*
  • Stochastic Processes

Substances

  • Calcium