INTRACELLULAR CALCIUM SIGNALING – BASIC MECHANISMS AND POSSIBLE ALTERATIONS

Abstract

The main property of neuronal and other excitable cells is their capability to transform excitatory waves into intracellular signals, where they trigger or modulate practically all cellular functions. Influx of calcium ions from the extracellular medium ("calcium signals") plays a key role in this process. Correspondingly alterations in intracellular calcium signaling are an important component of the physiological process of aging and of the most frequent and complicated forms of pathology, and their clarification is of basic medical importance. Therefore in the present paper we will discuss the main molecular mechanisms determining such signaling as well as their possible alterations