Ca 2+ is now firmly established as the most important intracellular regulator of physiological
and pathological events in a vast number of different cell types, including secretory epithelia.
In these tissues, Ca 2+ signalling is crucially important for the control of both fluid secretion
and electrolyte secretion as well as the regulation of macromolecule secretion. In this
overview article, I shall attempt to give some general background to the concepts underlying
our current thinking about Ca 2+ signalling in epithelia and its roles in regulating secretion. It …