Fig. 10.

Effect of flash photolysis of caged-IP₃ on SMCs treated with MCh and tetracaine. A: a fluorescence image of part of an airway obtained by confocal microscopy under resting conditions. Dashed white oval represents the position and size of the zone of UV illumination. The intracellular Ca²⁺ signaling of a SMC in response to a UV flash (1.0 s) in the presence of 200 nM MCh and 50 μM tetracaine is represented by a line-scan plot (B), constructed by sequentially aligning the pixels along a SL (white line indicated in A) across the SMC and ECs and changes in [Ca²⁺]_i in respect to time (C; from a ROI, white square in A). Photolysis of caged-IP₃ reinitiated Ca²⁺ oscillations and a transient contraction in the presence of MCh and tetracaine. Representative data are from 4 different airways from 2 mice.