Modelling oscillations and waves of cytosolic calcium (Q4377250)

In most cell types, calcium signals are highly organized in time and space. After stimulation by an extracellular agonist activating the phosphoinositide signalling pathway, intracellular organelles such as the endo- or sarcoplasmic reticulum release calcium into the cytoplasm. Because of the regenerative properties of the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate \((\text{InsP}_3)\) and ryanodine receptors that regulate this release, there is a periodic exchange of calcium between the internal stores and the cytosol. Calcium oscillations are so widespread that they can be regarded as one of the most significant finding of the last decade in the field of intracellular organization. Depending on the cell type and the extracellular agonist, calcium oscillations vary in period (from a few seconds to tens of minutes), shape (transient spikes or sinusoidal oscillations), and sensitivity to different drugs. For a given cell, the frequency of spiking increases with the level of extracellular calcium, while the amplitude remains roughly constant. Such frequency-encoded signals may be used to convey information into the cell interior. The phenomenological and simple two-variable model of the authors and \textit{M. Berridge} [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87, 1461-1465 (1990); Cell Calcium 12, 73-86 (1991)] used in the present study keeps being a useful and appropriate tool to study the dynamics of intracellular calcium signalling.