Effect of a calcium ionophore in the process of hormesis at the Crayfish Neuromuscular Junction

Abstract

The concept of hormesis is applicable to many fields of biological inquiry. Hormesis is the process in which a cell adapts to certain stressors by first being exposed to a low level of stress, then being exposed to higher levels of the same stress. Our aim for this project was to test the principle of calcium overload and neural adaptation. We conducted experiments on three different setups to observe the effects of different phases of hormesis. We used a calcium ionophore A23187 to speed calcium penetration into the cells. We hypothesized that we would observe the process of hormesis when the crayfish tail was exposed to different levels calcium and A23187. We used the reduction in the membrane potential as an indicator of cell death. Our results indicate that while significant changes occurred in the membrane potentials within setups, our results were not statistically significant when we compared the data between setups.