Millipore’s Ready-to-Assay GPCR frozen cells are designed for simple, rapid calcium assays with no requirement for intensive cell culturing. Millipore has optimized the freezing conditions to provide cells with high viability and functionality post-thaw. The user simply thaws the cells and resuspends them in media, dispenses cell suspension into assay plates and, following over night recovery, assays for calcium response.

Glucagon is a 29-amino acid peptide that stimulates glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis in the liver to increase blood glucose. The receptor for glucagon is a class 2 (or class B) GPCR that signals through Gs to stimulate cAMP production (Mayo et al., 2003). Mice lacking the glucagon receptor have mild hypoglycemia after fasting, and exhibit hyperplasia of pancreatic alpha-cells (Gelling et al., 2003). Because of its role in promoting hyperglycemia, the glucagon receptor presents a potential target for treatment of diabetes. Chemicon′s cloned human Glucagon Receptor-expressing cell line is made in the Chem-1 host, which supports high levels of recombinant Glucagon Receptor expression on the cell surface and contains high levels of the promiscuous G protein Galpha15 to couple the receptor to the calcium signaling pathway. Thus, the cell line is an ideal tool for screening for antagonists of interactions between the Glucagon Receptor and its ligands.

Host cells: Chem-1

Protein Target: glucagon / GCG