Role of calcium in regulating primary sensory neuronal excitability.
The fundamental role of calcium ions (Ca(2+)) in an excitable tissue, the frog heart, was first demonstrated in a series of classical reports by Sydney Ringer in the latter part of the nineteenth century (1882a, b; 1893a, b). Even so, nearly a century elapsed before it was proven that Ca(2+) regulated the excitability of primary sensory neurons. In this chapter we review the sites and mechanisms whereby internal and external Ca(2+) can directly or indirectly alter the excitability of primary sensory neurons: excitability changes being manifested typically by variations in shape of the action potential or the pattern of its discharge.
Gover
T D
TD
Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, 21201-1559, USA.
Moreira
T H
TH
Weinreich
D
D
D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism*; D015220:Calcium Channels / Q000378:metabolism*; D020013:Calcium Signaling; D003929:Diabetic Neuropathies / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D009437:Neuralgia / Q000378:metabolism; D024681:Potassium Channels, Calcium-Activated / Q000378:metabolism*; D011984:Sensory Receptor Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D020196:Trauma, Nervous System / Q000378:metabolism
D015220:Calcium Channels; D024681:Potassium Channels, Calcium-Activated; D002118:Calcium