The dual role of calcium as messenger and stressor in cell damage, death, and survival

Abstract

Ca2 + is an important second messenger participating in many cellular activities; when physicochemical insults deregulate its delicate homeostasis, it acts as an intrinsic stressor, producing/increasing cell damage. Damage elicits both repair and death responses; intriguingly, in those responses Ca2 + also participates as second messenger. This delineates a dual role for Ca2 + in cell stress, making difficult to separate the different and multiple mechanisms required for Ca2 + -mediated control of cell survival and apoptosis. Here we attempt to disentangle the two scenarios, examining on the one side, the events implicated in deregulated Ca2 + toxicity and the mechanisms through which this elicits reparative or death pathways; on the other, reviewing the role of Ca2 + as a messenger in the transduction of these same signaling events. © 2010 Claudia Cerella et al.