Researchers Explore Role of Plasma Membrane Pump in Calcium Signaling

Research published ahead of print in the journal Function suggests the plasma membrane Ca2+ ATPase (PMCA) pump helps regulate cytosolic calcium signaling.

Cytosolic calcium is found within the cells' intracellular fluid—the cytosol is one such liquid—and activates other signaling molecules within the cells. Cytosolic calcium rises in many types of cells when calcium-release channels (called CRAC channels) open, but too much of a prolonged increase may be harmful to the cells.

A research team from Oxford University in the U.K. and the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. studied how PMCA activity regulates intercellular calcium signaling. They found that a variation of the pump, called PMCA4b, played "a central role … in determining the pattern of a functional [calcium] signal and in sharpening local [calcium] gradients near CRAC channels, whilst protecting cells from a toxic [calcium] overload," the researchers wrote.

Read the full article, "Plasma membrane Ca2+ ATPase activity enables sustained store-operated Ca2+ entry in the absence of a bulk cytosolic Ca2+ rise." doi.org/10.1093/function/zqac040

More information:
Pradeep Barak et al, Plasma membrane Ca2+ ATPase activity enables sustained store-operated Ca2+ entry in the absence of a bulk cytosolic Ca2+ rise, Function (2022). DOI: 10.1093/function/zqac040

Provided by American Physiological Society