Expression and reconstitution of the bioluminescent Ca2+reporter aequorin in human embryonic stem cells,and exploration of the presence of functional IP3 and ryanodine receptors during the early stages of their differentiation into cardiomyocytes

In order to develop a novel method of visualizing possible Ca2＋ signaling during the early differentiation of hESCs into cardi- omyocytes and avoid some of the inherent problems associated with using fluorescent reporters, we expressed the biolumines- cent Ca2＋ reporter, apo-aequorin, in HES2 cells and then reconstituted active holo-aequorin by incubation withf-coelenterazine. The temporal nature of the Ca2＋ signals generated by the holo-f-aequorin-expressing HES2 cells during the earliest stages of differentiation into cardiomyocytes was then investigated. Our data show that no endogenous Ca2＋ transients （generated by re- lease from intracellular stores） were detected in 1-12-day-old cardiospheres but transients were generated in cardiospheres following stimulation with KC1 or CaC12, indicating that holo-f-aequorin was functional in these cells. Furthermore, following the addition of exogenous ATP, an inositol trisphosphate receptor （IP3R） agonist, small Ca2＋transients were generated from day 1 onward. That ATP was inducing Ca2＋ release from functional IP3Rs was demonstrated by treatment with 2-APB, a known IP3R antagonist. In contrast, following treatment with caffeine, a ryanodine receptor （RyR） agonist, a minima/Ca2＋ response was observed at day 8 of differentiation only. Thus, our data indicate that unlike RyRs, IP3Rs are present and continually functional at these early stages of cardiomyocyte differentiation.

Identification of Ca2+ signaling components in neural stem/progenitor cells during differentiation into neurons and glia in intact and dissociated zebrafish neurospheres

The development of the CNS in vertebrate embryos involves the generation of different sub-types of neurons and glia in a complex but highly-ordered spatio-temporal manner. Zebrafish are commonly used for exploring the development, plasticity and regeneration of the CNS, and the recent development of reliable protocols for isolating and culturing neural stem/progenitor cells(NSCs/NPCs) from the brain of adult fish now enables the exploration of mechanisms underlying the induction/specification/differentiation of these cells. Here, we refined a protocol to generate proliferating and differentiating neurospheres from the entire brain of adult zebrafish. We demonstrated via RT-qPCR that some isoforms of ip3 r, ryr and stim are upregulated/downregulated significantly in differentiating neurospheres, and via immunolabelling that 1,4,5-inositol trisphosphate receptor(IP3 R) type-1 and ryanodine receptor(RyR) type-2 are differentially expressed in cells with neuron-or radial glial-like properties. Furthermore, ATP but not caffeine(IP3 R and RyR agonists, respectively), induced the generation of Ca^(2+) transients in cells exhibiting neuron-or glial-like morphology. These results indicate the differential expression of components of the Ca^(2+) -signaling toolkit in proliferating and differentiating cells. Thus, given the complexity of the intact vertebrate brain, neurospheres might be a useful system for exploring neurodegenerative disease diagnosis protocols and drug development using Ca^(2+) signaling as a read-out.