Calcium-induced calcium release from intracellular stores is developmentally regulated in primary cultures of cerebellar granule neurons.

The properties of depolarization-evoked calcium transients are known to change during the maturation of dissociated cerebellar granule neuron cultures. Here, we assessed the role of the calcium-induced calcium release (CICR) mechanism in granule neuron maturation. Both depletion of intracellular calcium stores and the pharmacological blockade of CICR significantly reduced depolarization stimulated calcium transients in young but not older (>/=1 week) cultures. This functional decrease in the CICR signaling component was associated with the reduction of ryanodine receptor (RyR) immunoreactivity during granule neuron maturation both in culture and in the intact cerebellum. These observations are consistent with the idea that changes in RyR expression result in functional changes in calcium signaling transients during normal neuronal development in the intact mammalian cerebellum as well as in reduced neuronal cultures. Pharmacological disruption of CICR during neuron differentiation in vitro resulted in dose-dependent changes in survival, GAP-43 expression, and the acquisition of the glutamatergic neurotransmitter phenotype. Together, these results indicate that CICR function plays a physiologically relevant role in regulating early granule neuron differentiation in vitro and is likely to play a role in cerebellar maturation. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.