The calcium ion (Ca
2+) serves as an important cellular messenger with spatio-temporally highly dynamic patterns. Not only Ca
2+ entering from the plasma membrane but also Ca
2+ released from intracellular store sites play crucial roles in neurons as well as in other cell types. The cerebellar Purkinje cell shows a variety of spatio-temporal Ca
2+ dynamics in its rich arborization, and the Ca
2+ release mechanism mediated by IP
3 receptors and ryanodine receptors has been shown to be crucial for the induction of long-term depression, a form of synaptic plasticity, in this neuron. Purkinje cells in a model mouse line of human neurodegenerative disease, spinocerebellar ataxia type 1, showed abnormal Ca
2+ release properties, which indicated tight regulation of Ca
2+ dynamics in the wild type Purkinje cell. Quantitative analysis of the complex Ca
2+ dynamics in the Purkinje cell dendrite is still in progress to elucidate the link between external stimuli and the resultant biochemical changes.
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