The Dual Role of Calcium as Messenger and Stressor in Cell Damage, Death, and Survival

Abstract EN

Ca2+ is an important second messenger participating in many cellular activities; when physicochemical insults deregulate its delicate homeostasis, it acts as an intrinsic stressor, producing/increasing cell damage.

Damage elicits both repair and death responses; intriguingly, in those responses Ca2+ also participates as second messenger.

This delineates a dual role for Ca2+ in cell stress, making difficult to separate the different and multiple mechanisms required for Ca2+-mediated control of cell survival and apoptosis.

Here we attempt to disentangle the two scenarios, examining on the one side, the events implicated in deregulated Ca2+ toxicity and the mechanisms through which this elicits reparative or death pathways; on the other, reviewing the role of Ca2+ as a messenger in the transduction of these same signaling events.