The Dual Role of Calcium as Messenger and Stressor in Cell Damage, Death, and Survival

Abstract

is an important second messenger participating in many cellular activities; when physicochemical insults deregulate its delicate homeostasis, it acts as an intrinsic stressor, producing/increasing cell damage. Damage elicits both repair and death responses; intriguingly, in those responses also participates as second messenger. This delineates a dual role for in cell stress, making difficult to separate the different and multiple mechanisms required for -mediated control of cell survival and apoptosis. Here we attempt to disentangle the two scenarios, examining on the one side, the events implicated in deregulated toxicity and the mechanisms through which this elicits reparative or death pathways; on the other, reviewing the role of as a messenger in the transduction of these same signaling events.