Changes in intracellular calcium were monitored in cultured cortical astrocytes stimulated with albumin. Albumin elicited intracellular calcium mobilisation from intracellular stores, inducing repetitive intracellular calcium oscillations. The oscillations were not blocked by ryanodine, a blocker of the Ca-induced Ca release mechanism, and the release occurred from the same store as is accessed by glutamate and bradykinin, both of which release calcium by an IP3-dependent mechanism. Calcium signals induced by albumin appear therefore to occur via a pure IP3-dependent mechanism. When albumin was applied to confluent monolayers of astrocytes, the oscillations in individual cells were initially unsynchronised, but after several minutes of application, the Ca2 oscillations were observed to synchronise and spread through the astrocyte network as a wave. These intercellular calcium waves were inhibited by the gap junction blocker halothane. Using the fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) technique, we demonstrate that the development of propagated waves with prolonged exposure to albumin does not result from an increase in cell coupling. The development of calcium waves on exposure to albumin may be important in the formation of glial scars in the CNS after breakdown of the blood-brain barrier.