Robinson, Iain M. and Finnegan, Jennifer M. and Monck, Jonathan R. and Wightman, R. Mark and Fernandez, Julio M. (1995) Colocalization of calcium entry and exocytotic release sites in adrenal chromaffin cells. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 92 (7). pp. 2474-2478. ISSN 0027-8424
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
'Snapshot' images of localized Ca2+ influx into patch-clamped chromaffin cells were captured by using a recently developed pulsed-laser imaging system. Transient opening of voltage-sensitive Ca2+ channels gave rise to localized elevations of Ca2+ that had the appearance of either 'hotspots' or partial rings found immediately beneath the plasma membrane. When the Ca2+ imaging technique was employed in conjunction with flame-etched carbon-fiber electrodes to spatially map the release sites of catecholamines, it was observed that the sites of Ca2+ entry and catecholamine release were colocalized. These results provide functional support for the idea that secretion occurs from 'active zone'-like structures in neuroendocrine cells.