title: L-type voltage-operated calcium channels, N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors and neuronal nitric-oxide synthase form a calcium/redox nano-transducer within lipid rafts.
abstract: Cytosolic calcium plays a leading role in the control of neuronal excitability, plasticity and survival. This work aims to experimentally assess the possibility that lipid rafts of the plasma membrane can provide a structural platform for a faster and tighter functional coupling between calcium and nitric-oxide signaling in neurons. Using primary cerebellar granule neurons (CGN) in culture this hypothesis has been experimentally assessed with fluorescence resonance energy transfer imaging, preparations of lipid rafts-enriched membrane fragments and western blotting. The results obtained in this work demonstrated that major calcium entry systems of the plasma membrane of CGN (L-type calcium channels and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors) and nitric-oxide synthase are separated by less than 80 nm from each other within lipid rafts-associated sub-microdomains, suggesting a new role of lipid rafts as neuronal calcium/redox nano-transducers.
authors.affiliation: Dept. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Extremadura, Badajoz 06006, Spain. dorinda1@unex.es
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Marques-da-Silva
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gutierrez-Merino
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D020746:Calcium Channels, L-Type / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002772:Cholera Toxin / Q000378:metabolism; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer; D021962:Membrane Microdomains / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D049329:Nanostructures; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism; D052248:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type I / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D051381:Rats; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D020746:Calcium Channels, L-Type; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate; D002772:Cholera Toxin; D052248:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type I; D002118:Calcium