A wide variety of hormones, neurotransmitters and growth factors exert their cellular effects by reacting first with membrane receptors resulting in an increase of intracellular calcium and the cellular response. The calcium signal in the cell is mediated by the high-affinity calcium binding proteins (characterized by the EF-hand structural element), and by the calcium and phospholipid dependent proteins. Many of these have been discovered most recently. Their purification, distribution, protein and gene structures as well as their physiological roles are discussed. The book is of interest to...

Claus W. Heizmann and Katharina Braun ore than 10,000 articles were published in 1994 on calcium, M 2 emphasizing the widespread interest and progress in Ca + 2 related research. This book focuses mainly on Ca + -binding pro 2 teins in the central nervous system, where Ca + ions have been found to activate fundamental processes such as release of neu rotransmitters, axonal flow, long term potentiation, cell motility, differentiation, secretion, and apoptosis. It has also been found that a number of neurodegenerative disorders have been attributed 2 1 to aberrations of intracellular Ca +...