Issue Archive

Slow rise of intracellular Ca2+ concentration in rat primary sensory neurons triggered by loureirin B

YANG Yi-Ning, CHEN Jue-Xu, PANG Xue-Yan, TERAKAWA Susumu, CHEN Xu, JI Yong-Hua, YONG Ke-Lan

Laboratory of Neuropharmacology and Neurotoxicology, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China； Photonmedical Research Center, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu 431-3192, Japan

Abstract

In the present study, the intracellular free calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) in acutely isolated rat dorsal root ganglia (DRG)
neurons modulated by loureirin B, an active component of “dragon’s blood” which is a kind of Chinese herbal medicine, was determined
by the means of Fura-2 based microfluorimetry. It was found that loureirin B could evoke the elevation of [Ca2+]i in a dose-dependent
manner. However, the elevation of [Ca2+]i evoked in the calcium free solution was much smaller than that in the standard external cell
solution, suggesting that most change of [Ca2+]i was generated by the influx of extracellular Ca2+, not by the activities of intracellular
organelles like Ca2+ stores and mitochondria. In addition, the mixture of loureirin B and caffeine also induced [Ca2+]i rise, but the peak
of [Ca2+]i rise induced by the mixture was significantly lower than that by caffeine alone, which means the triggering pathway and the
targets of caffeine are probably involved in loureirin B-induced [Ca2+]i rise. Moreover, compared to the transients induced by caffeine,
KCl and capsaicin, the loureirin B-induced [Ca2+]i rise is much slower and more stable. These results indicate that the capability of
loureirin B of inducing the [Ca2+]i rise is solid and unique.

Key words: loureirin B; dorsal root ganglia neurons; [Ca2+]i; caffeine; Fura-2

Received: 2008-08-29　　Accepted: 2009-02-05

Corresponding author: 吉永华,雍克岚　　E-mail: yhji@staff.shu.edu.cn, klyong@staff.shu.edu.cn

Citing This Article：

YANG Yi-Ning, CHEN Jue-Xu, PANG Xue-Yan, TERAKAWA Susumu, CHEN Xu, JI Yong-Hua, YONG Ke-Lan. Slow rise of intracellular Ca2+ concentration in rat primary sensory neurons triggered by loureirin B. Acta Physiol Sin 2009; 61 (2): 115-120 (in Chinese with English abstract).