Fig. 1

Intracellular calcium increases caused by NEFAs are dependent on extracellular calcium. a–e Time courses of representative Fura-2 ratio signals in at least three assays, caused by 300 μM of each NEFA in BUVEC cells. Each NEFA was added at 50 s during a 100 s period (black line). Suspended cells were exposed to each NEFA in HBSS, without or with pretreatment with 50 μM BAPTA-AM or calcium-free HBSS/0.3 mM EGTA (black, dark grey, and light grey traces, respectively). Before fatty acid exposure, EGTA was added at the light grey arrow. BUVECs were also exposed to only to the vehicle control at 50 s (dotted traces). Ethanol (1 %) was used as the vehicle for MA and SA. DMSO (1 %) was used as the vehicle for PA, OA, and LA. f–j AUCs for NEFAs in HBS buffer (black bars), calcium-free buffer with 0.3 mM EGTA (light grey bars), or after BAPTA treatment (dark grey bars). AUC of vehicle alone, 1 % ethanol or 1 % DMSO (white bars). The data are expressed as the means ± SEM of at least three experiments. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.005