The appearance of phosphatidylserine (PS) on the outer surface of apoptotic cells is an important signal for their ingestion. In platelets, elevation of intracellular Ca2+ with thapsigargin can trigger large amounts of PS exposure within minutes. We detected PS exposure in U937 promonocytes and Jurkat T-cells after incubation with thapsigargin, but in only 10% of the cells, and it took up to 6 h to occur. Tumor necrosis factor and anti-Fas antibody rapidly trigger apoptosis in these cells, and chelation of extracellular Ca2+ with 5 mM EGTA inhibited PS exposure by 65% and 50%, respectively. Chelation of intracellular Ca2+ with BAPTA-AM had no effect. Other parameters of apoptosis, including cell blebbing, shrinkage, nuclear fragmentation, activation of the ICE-like proteases, and fodrin cleavage, were not inhibited by extracellular EGTA. We conclude that while an elevation of intracellular Ca2+ is an ineffective trigger of apoptosis in the cells investigated, extracellular Ca2+ is required for efficient PS exposure during apoptosis.
