Effects of an excitatory amino acid, glutamate, and of ionotropic and metabotropic glutamate receptor agonists on the levels of free intracellular calcium, and their specific receptor binding in human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells were studied. The calcium response was always biphasic, except for AMPA, suggesting both stimulatory and inhibitory effects on free intracellular calcium upon glutamate receptor stimulation, both with ionotropic and metabotropic glutamate receptor agonists. Specific binding of glutamate and other glutamate receptor agonists, together with the biphasic calcium response, suggests that human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells express both ionotropic and metabotropic glutamate receptors. These findings shed new light on the use of human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells as a human neuronal tumor cell model.
