title: Development of Ca2+ homeostasis in epithelial cells from embryonic and neonatal intestine.
abstract: The fluorescent probe fura-2 was used to assay Ca2+ levels in epithelial cell suspensions from embryonic and neonatal chick duodenum. Cell preparations maintained high viability, completely hydrolyzed fura-2/AM to fura-2, retained 92% of cellular fura-2 within the cytoplasmic compartment, and gave low autofluorescence values during assay. Fura-2 leakage from loaded cells occurred at all ages, but could be corrected for in subsequent calculations of cellular Ca2+. Cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentration was 76-80 nM in cells from 14- to 16-day embryonic intestine, rose significantly to 92-98 nM at 17-20 days, and reached 209 nM at 1-day post-hatch when assayed in buffers containing 1.3 mM Ca2+. The developmental rise in cytoplasmic Ca2+ was accompanied by an enhanced ability of cells to maintain a constant Ca2+ concentration at increased levels of extracellular Ca2+ and by a highly correlated rise in alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity. Epithelial Ca2+ subsequently decreased to the "adult" value of 133-142 nM and was constant along the crypt-villus axis of neonatal intestine. These results verify that fura-2 can be used to compare baseline cytoplasmic Ca2+ values of epithelial cells from developing intestine, reveal that significant changes in Ca2+ homeostasis occur during ontogeny, and suggest that epithelial Ca2+ may modulate ALP activity during the differentiation of embryonic enterocytes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh.
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Black
authors.forename: J O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Rogers
mesh_terms: D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000378:metabolism*; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism*; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D016257:Fura-2; D006706:Homeostasis; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology / Q000378:metabolism*; D015759:Ionomycin / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D015759:Ionomycin; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase; D002118:Calcium; D016257:Fura-2