Signal Transduction

Comments by Edward Brown and Steven Hebert, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston

This paper describes the isolation, cloning, and molecular characterization of a receptor molecule for calcium ions located on the outer surface of certain types of cells. The reason it has received so much attention from the scientific community is that "this was the first evidence that extracellular calcium ions [Ca$$²⁺$]\; could\; have\; direct\; effects\; on\; certain\; cells\; via\; a\; membrane-bound\; receptor,"\; declares\; Edward\; Brown,\; a\; professor\; of\; medicine\; in\; the\; endocrine-hypertension\; division\; of\; the\; department\; of\; medicine\; at\; Brigham\; and\; Women\text{'}s\; Hospital\; and\; Harvard\; Medical\; School.$

DIRECT EFFECTS: Steven Hebert, left, and Edward Brown and colleagues found that Ca$$²⁺$receptors\; influence\; signal\; transduction.$

"Although the importance of intracellular Ca2+ ions in signal transduction had been well established for some time, we only had indirect evidence to suggest that they could also act as the first messenger in signal-transduction ...