Department of Mathematics, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
Department of Engineering Science, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
Biomolecules. 2022 Oct 11;12(10):1455. doi: 10.3390/biom12101455.
The cytosolic concentration of free calcium ions ([Ca2+]) is an important intracellular messenger in most cell types, and the spatial distribution of [Ca2+] is often critical. In a salivary gland acinar cell, a polarised epithelial cell, whose principal function is to transport water and thus secrete saliva, [Ca2+] controls the secretion of primary saliva, but increases in [Ca2+] are localised to the apical regions of the cell. Hence, any quantitative explanation of how [Ca2+] controls saliva secretion must take into careful account the spatial distribution of the various Ca2+ sources, Ca2+ sinks, and Ca2+-sensitive ion channels. Based on optical slices, we have previously constructed anatomically accurate three-dimensional models of seven salivary gland acinar cells, and thus shown that a model in which Ca2+ responses are confined to the apical regions of the cell is sufficient to provide a quantitative and predictive explanation of primary saliva secretion. However, reconstruction of such anatomically accurate cells is extremely time consuming and inefficient. Here, we present an alternative, mostly automated method of constructing three-dimensional cells that are approximately anatomically accurate and show that the new construction preserves the quantitative accuracy of the model.
细胞浆内游离钙离子浓度([Ca2+])是大多数细胞类型中重要的细胞内信使，而[Ca2+]的空间分布往往是关键的。在唾液腺腺泡细胞中，一种极化的上皮细胞，其主要功能是运输水并因此分泌唾液，[Ca2+]控制着初级唾液的分泌，但[Ca2+]的增加局限于细胞的顶端区域。因此，任何定量解释[Ca2+]如何控制唾液分泌的方法都必须仔细考虑各种 Ca2+来源、Ca2+汇和 Ca2+-敏感离子通道的空间分布。基于光学切片，我们之前已经构建了七个唾液腺腺泡细胞的解剖学精确三维模型，因此表明，将 Ca2+反应局限于细胞的顶端区域的模型足以提供对初级唾液分泌的定量和预测解释。然而，重建这种解剖学精确的细胞非常耗时且效率低下。在这里，我们提出了一种替代方法，主要是自动化构建三维细胞，这些细胞在解剖学上大致准确，并表明新的构建方法保持了模型的定量准确性。
