Multiple Forms and Distribution of Calcium/Calmodulin-Stimulated Protein Kinase II in Brain

In recent years, the enzyme Ca²⁺/calmodulin-stimulated protein kinase II¹ (CaM-PK II) as attracted a great deal of interest. CaM-PK II is the most abundant calmodulin-stimulated protein kinase in brain, where it is particularly enriched in neurons (Ouimet et al., 1984; Erondu and Kennedy, 1985; Lin et al., 1987; Scholz et al., 1988). Neuronal CaM-PK II has been suggested to be involved in several phenomena associated with synaptic plasticity (Lisman and Goldring, 1988; Kelly, 1992), including long-term potentiation (Malinow et al., 1988; Malenka et al.,1989), neurotransmission (Nichols et al., 1990; Siekevitz, 1991), and learning (for review, see Rostas, 1991). This enzyme has also been postulated to be selectively vulnerable in several pathological condition, including epilepsy/kindling (Bronstein et al.,1990; Wu et al., 1990), cerebral ischemia (Taft et al., 1988), and organophosphorus toxicity (Abou-Donia and Lapadula, 1990).