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Concentration, compartmentation and metabolic function of intracellular free Mg 2+ Volume 19, issue 4, December 2006

Author
Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Institut für Molekularbiologie und Biochemie, Arnimallee 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany

Intracellular total Mg 2+ and free Mg 2+ are compartmentalized between cell organelles and within the cytosol. Different values of [Mg 2+] i in the cytosol of the same cell type were measured by various investigators. A main reason for the differences is the uncertainty of the dissociation constants used for the Mg furaptra complex in the fluorescence method and for MgATP when 31P NMR was employed. The more realistic K D values of Mg furaptra and MgATP measured under in situ conditions are higher than the K Ds used by most investigators. The [Mg 2+] is obtained and the K Ds used by various authors were presented. The role of intracellular Mg 2+ in metabolic functions and the action of various effectors on [Mg 2+] i and [Ca 2+] i was reviewed. Intracellular Mg 2+ may have a permissive role supporting the effector-induced mechanisms that are mediated by Ca 2+ as a second messenger.