Fig. 8.

Ca²⁺ waves among dorsal spinal cord astrocytes are suppressed by A3P5PS and suramin. Thetraces show individual records of the ratio of fluorescence intensities of fura-2 at 340 and 380 nm in nine individual astrocytes within a single field. Cell 1 was mechanically stimulated at the times indicated by the black arrow. Thepanels along with each trace are ratiometric images of each experiment taken at four different time points; 5 sec before touch and 1, 5, and 20 sec after stimulation touch. Thewhite arrow indicates the cell stimulated directly by touch. The color bar in the top panelindicates the scale of ratio intensity. a, Stimulation of cell 1 before the addition of antagonists. b, Ten minutes later, stimulation of cell 1 in the presence of A3P5PS (10 μm). c, Ten minutes after the washout of A3P5PS, bath solution containing suramin (100 μm) was applied, and then cell 1 was stimulated. d, Cell 1 was stimulated 10 min after washout of solution containing suramin.