title: Differential coding of humoral stimuli by timing and amplitude of intracellular calcium spike trains.
abstract: The ubiquitous Ca2(+)-phosphoinositide pathway transduces extracellular signals to cellular effectors. Using a mathematical model, we simulated intracellular Ca2+ fluctuations in hepatocytes upon humoral stimulation. We estimated the information encoded about random humoral stimuli in these Ca2+ spike trains using an information-theoretic approach based on stimulus estimation methods. We demonstrate accurate transfer of information about random humoral signals with low temporal cutoff frequencies. In contrast, our results suggest that high-frequency stimuli are poorly transduced by the transmembrane machinery. We found that humoral signals are encoded in both the timing and amplitude of intracellular Ca2+ spikes. The information transmitted per spike is similar to that of sensory neuronal systems, in spite of several orders of magnitude difference in firing rate.
authors.affiliation: Hannover Medical School, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kropp
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gabbiani
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Prank
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism*; D020013:Calcium Signaling / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods; D007424:Intracellular Fluid / Q000378:metabolism; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D002118:Calcium