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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2007 Nov 2.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Neurosci. 2006 Jun;7(6):423–436. doi: 10.1038/nrn1928

Figure 3. Astrocytes have several types of ionotropic and metabotropic membrane receptor for ATP and its breakdown products, ADP, AMP and adenosine, which increase intracellular calcium concentrations.

Figure 3

Calcium transients and waves induced by extracellular ATP are important in intercellular communication between astrocytes and between neurons and astrocytes. a | Rat astrocytes in culture. b | Application of 100 μM ATP to cultured rat astrocytes resulted in rapid and large increases in intracellular calcium concentrations. c | Shows recovery after a 15 min wash. Intracellular calcium concentration was monitored using confocal microscopy to measure the fluorescence intensity of the calcium-sensitive indicator, fluo-4. High concentrations of intracellular calcium are indicated in yellow and orange.