L-type VGCC activation is sufficient to mediate sustained ERK activation in MIN6 cells via local Ca²⁺ signalling.

<p>MIN6 cells incubated in KRB plus 2 mM glucose were loaded with 100 µM of EGTA-AM or BAPTA-AM prior to treatment with 10 µM Bay-K 8644 at room temperature for the times indicated. a) Proteins were resolved by SDS-PAGE and Western blotted using anti-phospho-ERK1/2 (pERK) or anti-ERK2 (ERK2) antibodies. A representative blot is shown with densitometric analysis of the results below showing mean +S.E.M. (n = 4). Results were analysed by two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni's multiple comparison test compared to Bay-K 8644 alone at each time point; ***, <i>P</i><0.001. b) MIN6 cells were treated as in (a) but in addition were loaded with 2 µM fura-2-AM and [Ca²⁺]_i levels measured by epifluorescence microscopy (n>30). A mean trace is shown. In addition, a representative trace obtained from MIN6 cells stimulated with 10 nM GLP-1 plus 16.7 mM glucose was included for comparison.