Stimulated rise in neuronal calcium is faster and greater in the nucleus than the cytosol

Calcium is an important regulator of a variety of neuronal activities including gene expression. However, it is not clear how Ca2+ influx affects intracellular Ca2+ concentration ( Ca2+]i) in the nucleus. We have taken advantage of laser photometry, the Ca2(+)-sensitive dye Indo-1 that allows ratio imaging, and confocal microscopy to eliminate the influences of unequal cell geometry and dye distribution. We show that Ca2+ influx into sympathetic neurons causes a significantly greater and faster increase in Ca2+]i in the nucleus than in the cytosol. The differential increase in nuclear Ca2+]i was apparent when Ca2+ entered from the extracellular medium during K+ depolarization, ionomycin or acetylcholine treatment, and brief periods of electrical stimulation. When intracellular Ca2+ was mobilized by caffeine the rise in nuclear Ca2+]i was again greater than in any other region of the neuron. The increased nuclear Ca2+ levels were uniform throughout the nucleus and not associated with the nuclear envelope. The differential rise in nuclear Ca2+ was eliminated by acridine orange binding to nucleic acids. Nonexcitable cells (astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and fibroblasts) did not show differential distribution of Ca2+ after ionomycin treatment. These results support the idea that activity-dependent gene regulation in sympathetic neurons may be mediated by changes in Ca2+ concentration at the level of the chromatin material.