摘要：Ca2+ ions play crucial roles in mediating physiological and pathophysiological processes, yet Ca2+ dynamics local to the Ca2+ source, either from influx via calcium permeable ion channels on plasmic membrane or release from internal Ca2+ stores, is difficult to delineate. Large-conductance calcium-activated K+ (BK-type) channels, abundantly distribute in excitable cells and often localize to the proximity of voltage-gated Ca2+ channels (VGCCs), spatially enabling the coupling of the intracellular Ca2+ signal to the channel gating to regulate membrane excitability and spike firing patterns. Here we utilized the sensitivity and dynamic range of BK to explore non-uniform Ca2+ local transients in the microdomain of VGCCs. Accordingly, we applied flash photolysis of caged Ca2+ to activate BK channels and determine their intrinsic sensitivity to Ca2+. We found that uncaging Ca2+ activated biphasic BK currents with fast and slow components (time constants being τf ≈ 0.2 ms and τs ≈ 10 ms), which can be accounted for by biphasic Ca2+ transients following light photolysis. We estimated the Ca2+-binding rate constant kb (≈1.8 × 108 M−1s−1) for mSlo1 and further developed a model in which BK channels act as a calcium sensor capable of quantitatively predicting local microdomain Ca2+ transients in the vicinity of VGCCs during action potentials.
