Abstract
Physiological activity of osteoblast including bone formation is known to be closely related to the increase of intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ activity($[Ca^{2+}]_i$) in osteoblast. $Ca^{2+}$ is an important intracellular messenger in diverse cellular functions, and regulation of its level is mediated by the transmembrane $Ca^{2+}$ movement via $Ca^{2+}$ channels, $Na^+-Ca^{2+}$ exchange, and by intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ movement through the intracellular stores. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ is regulated in osteoblast-like cells(OLCs) by measuring $Ca^{2+}$ activity with cell imaging technique. OLCs were isolated from femur and tibia of neonatal rats, and cultured for 7 days. Cultured OLCs were loaded with a $Ca^{2+}$-sensitive fluorescent dye, Fura-2, and fluorescence images were monitored with a cooled CCD camera. The images were processed and analyzed with an image analyzing software. The results were as follows. (1) $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ of OLC decreased as the $Ca^{2+}$ concentration in the superfusing Tyrode solution was lowered. When $Na^+$ concentration in the superfusing solution was decreased, $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ increased.. These suggest that $Ca^{2+}$ flux occurs via the $Na^+-Ca^{2+}$ exchange mechanism. (2) When $Na^+$ in the superfusing solution was removed. a transient $Ca^{2+}$, increase($Ca^{2+}$ spike) was occasionally observed. However, $Ca^{2+}$ spike was not observed after adding 1 ${\mu}M$ thapsigargin. This implies that the generation of $Ca^{2+}$ spike is mediated by the release of $Ca^{2+}$ from endoplasmic reticulum(ER). (3) As the $Ca^{2+}$ concentration in the superfusing solution was raised, the frequency of 0mM $Na^+$-induced $Ca^{2+}$ spike increased, suggesting that $Ca^{2+}$-induced $Ca^{2+}$ release(CICR) mechanism exists. (4) After $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ was decreased with the superfusion of $Ca^{2+}$-free solution containing thapsigargin, the recovery of $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ with reperfusion of 2.5mM $Ca^{2+}$ solution transiently exceeded the control level, suggesting that the depletion of $Ca^{2+}$ in ER induces $Ca^{2+}$ influx from extracellular medium via store-operated $Ca^{2+}$ influx(SOCI) mechanism. (5) $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ was not affected by the superfusion of 25mM $K^+$ Tyrode solution. These results suggest that intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ activity in osteoblast is regulated by transmembrane $Ca^{2+}$ flux via $Na^+-Ca^{2+}$ exchange, $Ca^{2+}$ release from the internal store (ER) via $Ca^{2+}$-induced $Ca^{2+}$ release, and store-operated $Ca^{2+}$ influx across the cell membrane.
