Figure 11
Effect of flash photolysis of caged-IP 3 on SMCs treated with MCh and FSK. (A) A fluorescence image of part of an airway obtained by confocal microscopy. The dashed white oval indicates the position and size of the zone of UV illumination (0.5 s, OD 0.5). L, lumen; ECs, epithelial cells; SMC, smooth muscle cell. Dotted line indicates the interface between ECs and SMCs. Scale bar = 18 μm. Intracellular Ca2+ signaling represented by (B) a line-scan plot, constructed by sequentially aligning the pixels along the line across the SMCs and ECs (white line indicated in A) from each recorded fluorescence image. (C) The simultaneous recording of intracellular Ca2+ signaling of SMC (upper trace, and B), and the changes in airway lumen area (lower trace) and (D) frequency of the Ca2+ oscillations in response to the flash photolysis of caged-IP3 during stimulation with MCh (200 nM) and FSK (10 μM). Repetitive release of IP3 by flash photolysis (0.5 s, OD 0.5, indicated by arrows) increased the frequency of the Ca2+ oscillations induced by MCh and FSK and re-contracted the airway. Representative traces of 6 different slices from 4 mice.