Physiology

Edited by: Karen Young Kreeger
C. Randriamampita, R.Y. Tsien, "Emptying of intracellular Ca²⁺ stores releases a novel small messenger that stimulates Ca²⁺ influx," Nature, 364:809-14, 1993. (Cited in 130 publications through February 1995)

Comments by Clotilde Randriamampita, Laboratoire de Neurobiologie, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris

This paper reports the discovery of a new and long-sought molecule that controls the internal calcium concentration within human cells, in this case a lymphocyte cell line.

"This is an important finding," relates Clotilde Randriamampita, a research associate at the Laboratoire de Neurobiologie, Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, "because fluctuations in internal calcium concentration play a very fundamental role in regulating cell physiology, especially during cell activation." Cell activation is the cascade of chemical reactions leading to changes in such functions as gene regulation and secreting hormones.

"Researchers have observed an increase of calcium inside a cell in response to external stimuli,...