Cytosolic calcium and membrane conductance in response to platelet-derived growth factor and bradykinin stimulation in single human fibroblasts.

Bradykinin (BK) and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) act as mitogens and stimulate phosphatidylinositol (PI) turnover in human fibroblasts. By coupling whole-cell electrophysiological measurements with cytosolic Ca2+ determinations using fura-2 microfluorimetry, we have studied the changes in cytosolic calcium and in membrane conductance in single cells following stimulation with BK or PDGF. Both agonists produce variable patterns of response which include: single transient, sustained pulsations, damped oscillations, no response. In all cases, there is a very good temporal correlation between increases in intracellular Ca2+ and membrane current. The cytosolic calcium elevation appears to be insensitive to membrane potential changes, indicating that Ca2+ is released from an intracellular source. The Ca2(+)-activated current is not blocked by 1 microM apamin or by 0.5 mM (+)-tubocurarine; it is instead strongly reduced by 5 mM tetraethylammonium (TEA). We can conclude that BK and PDGF induce very similar early responses in human fibroblasts, and that the variable pattern of response does not depend on the particular mitogen used. The membrane currents are due to a kind of Ca2(+)-activated K+ channels which, according to their voltage-dependence and specific blockers, belong to the "maxi K+" class.