Intracellular Ca2+ signals are coordinated to elicit spatiotemporal patterns. These include repetitive Ca 2+ transients, which may be localized or propagated as regenerative waves that may also pass into neighbouring cells [1][2][3]. d-myo-Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (InsP 3 ) is a well-established intracellular Ca 2+ mobilizing messenger in many cell types [3], and is a paradigm for additional molecules that release Ca 2+ from intracellular Ca 2+ stores. Cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR) and nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP) were first discovered in the sea urchin egg as novel Ca 2+ mobilizing agents [4][5][6]. In this cell, cADPR was shown to target ryanodine receptors (RyRs) to release Ca 2+ from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and now has been established as an intracellular messenger in several cell types [7,8]. In contrast, NAADP was found to activate a Ca 2+ release mechanism distinct from those activated by InsP 3 and cADPR, based on pharmacology and self-induced inactivation of the different Ca 2+ release mechanisms. It has thus been of great interest to investigate the physiology, enzymology and pharmacology of the NAADP signalling pathway. Recent reports have shown increases in NAADP levels in response to cellular stimuli fulfilling a major criterion for the classification of NAADP as a second messenger not only in sea urchin eggs but also in mammalian cells [9][10][11][12]. Here we focus on the Ca 2+ mobilizing properties of NAADP and compare them with the actions of InsP 3 and cADPR.
Distinct properties of NAADPSince the discovery of NAADP as a Ca 2+ mobilizing molecule in sea urchin egg homogenates, the sea urchin egg has remained an important system in which to study the actions of NAADP. NAADP has an ability to release Ca 2+ from intracellular Ca 2+ stores and is the most potent Ca 2+ mobilizing agent described so [14,21,29]. Therefore in contrast to [43]. A second model, the two pool or trigger hypothesis, is based on the idea that there is a distinct NAADP-sensitive storage organelle, possibly an thapsigargin-insensitive acidic store [28], that is responsible for a localized signal which is amplified by InsP 3 Rs and RyRs the on the ER by CICR [22,34,36,38]. This model accounts for the finding in some cells that localized NAADP-induced signals persist in the presence of InsP 3 Rs and RyR antagonists or thapsigargin, but are abolished by agents that dissipate storage of by acidic organelles, such as the vacuolar H + pump inhibitor, bafilomycin A1. This has been most clearly demonstrated in the sea urchin egg [28], but also extended to several mammalian cell types [11,[44][45][46]. Two types of pharmacological manipulation of acidic stores have been investigated with regard to NAADP-evoked release. Glycyl-phenylalanyl-naphthylamide (GPN) is an agent that penetrates cellular membranes but is a substrate for the luminal lysosomal enzyme cathepsin C trapping membrane impermeant products within lysosomes resulting in disruption of lysosomal-related organelles by osmotic lysis [47]. T...