Darier's disease: a calcium-signaling perspective

Ca2+ influx evoked across the plasma membrane upon internal store depletion is essential for a myriad of cellular functions including gene expression, cell proliferation, differentiation and even apoptosis. Darier's disease (DD), an autosomal dominant inherited disorder of the skin, arising due to mutations in the isoform 2 of the sarco (endo) plasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase (SERCA2), exemplifies an anomaly of Ca2+ signaling disturbances. Owing to loss of function mutations in SERCA2, keratinocytes in DD patients have a reduced pool of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) Ca2+. Importantly, the status of ER Ca2+ is critical for the activation of a class of plasma membrane Ca2+ channels referred to as store operated Ca2+ channels (SOCs). The widely expressed transient receptor potential (TRP) family of channels is proposed to be SOCs. In this review we discuss DD from the viewpoint of Ca2+ signaling and present a potential role for TRPC1 in the disease pathogenesis.