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Video 3. Calcium waves in glial cells (Chapter 15)
Video 3: Calcium waves in glial cells. Each of the coloured objects in the movie is a single glial cell in culture. The cells have been loaded with a dye (Fluo-3TM) that fluoresces more brightly when calcium concentrations increase. The brightness of the fluorescence has been coded as color, so the warmer the color, the higher the calcium concentration.
At the start of the video the cells are stimulated with extracellular ATP, which acts on P2Y receptors to activate phospholipase C. In each cell, a calcium wave is initiated at one point and travels through the cytososol.
The video plays in real time and represents five seconds in the life of the cells.
