Cyclic AMP directs IP3-evoked Ca2+ signalling to different intracellular Ca2+ stores

Abstract

Cholesterol depletion reversibly abolishes carbachol-evoked Ca2+ release from IP3-sensitive stores, without affecting the distribution of IP3 receptors (IP3R) or ER, IP3 formation or responses to photolysis of caged IP3. Receptors that stimulate cAMP formation do not alone evoke Ca2+ signals, but they potentiate those evoked by carbachol. We show that these potentiated signals are entirely unaffected by cholesterol depletion, and that within individual cells different IP3-sensitive Ca2+ stores are released by carbachol alone and by carbachol combined with receptors that stimulate cAMP formation. We suggest that muscarinic acetylcholine receptors in lipid rafts deliver IP3 at high concentration to associated IP3R, stimulating them to release Ca2+. Muscarinic receptors outside rafts are less closely associated with IP3R and provide insufficient local IP3 to activate IP3R directly. These IP3R, probably type 2 IP3R within a discrete Ca2+ store, are activated only when their sensitivity is increased by cAMP. Sensitization of IP3R by cAMP extends the effective range of signalling by phospholipase C, allowing muscarinic receptors that are otherwise ineffective to recruit additional IP3-sensitive Ca2+ stores.