Hi Catherine,

There are a number of ways to alter intracellular calcium levels pharmacologically. What are you trying to do exactly? Do you want to increase or decrease Ca2+ levels? And which type of cells are you working with? 

Hi,

Ionomycin can be used to increase intracellular Ca++ levels, where as EGTA or EDTA to block the entry of extracellular Ca++ into the cells.

You can find a number of articles using the reagents as the search terms.

 Eg: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0125311

Cheers.

Both EGTA and EDTA effectively decrease intracellular calcium concentration by binding free Ca, so they do not really prevent calcium entry. EGTA is quite selective for Ca. EDTA does bind also other divalent cations like Mg. Then, as mentioned, above, there are many substances acting in opposite way, which release Ca from intracellular stores (like caffeine or ionomycine), or inhibit Ca reuptake like thapsigargine.

This is a very big question, actually there is (at least) a 30 year literature about the subject. The first thing to know is: do you want to alter intracellular (mainly cytosolic) Ca concetration as in response to physiological stimulus, or do you want to modify the internal Ca by experimental manipolation? In the first case, you should address to 'Ca-mobilizing' substances or Ca channels activators, but choosin the right one is dependent on the cell type. In the second case, caffein, thapsigargin and ionomycin are among the substances you can consider, as previously mentioned, but you should be aware that they are partially or totally irreversible. Again, the question is very wide and if you have a more specific problem, maybe you can specify it

ATP can be used to increase the cytosolic calcium concentrations. ATP acts on the P2Y receptors followed by calcium entry into the cells. Most of the cell lines and primary cells generally have P2Y receptors. It is easy to manipulate the concentration of ATP and so also the intracellular calcium rise events which are reversible in nature.

Another way, Ionomycin gives easy method of raising the intracellular calcium concentration with out depending on any specific receptor types. The effect is also reversible and easy to manipulate by adjusting the concentrations of ionomycin.