The effect of alpha-thrombin and ADP on calcium mobilization and alpha-granule release in individual platelets was investigated by flow cytometry. alpha-Thrombin (4.5 nM) caused a uniform rise of free cytosolic calcium ([Ca2+]i) among indo-1-loaded human platelets. Despite the uniformity of this effect, approximately 20% of the cells failed to secrete alpha-granule content, as shown by binding of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated S12 monoclonal antibody. ADP (10 microM) caused a similar brisk and uniform rise of calcium but did not increase S12 binding to any platelets. On the other hand, with alpha-thrombin (0.5 nM), calcium mobilization was heterogeneous and paralleled granule release. [Ca2+]i increased rapidly in some platelets, while only slowly in others. When an electronic gate was set according to FITC-S12 fluorescence, cells with a greater secretory response proved to be those with a higher calcium level. With both alpha-thrombin and ADP, chelation of external calcium by EGTA (2 mM) reduced calcium response of individual cells. NiCl2 (1 mM) also inhibited calcium rise of individual platelets to the same extent as EGTA (2 mM) in spite of the presence of 1 mM CaCl2 in the extracellular media. The effects of EGTA and NiCl2 were not limited to a particular subpopulation of cells. These data suggest that the putative Ni2(+)-inhibitable divalent cation channel(s) may be responsible for the increased influx of calcium that occurs during platelet activation by alpha-thrombin and ADP. It appears that these calcium channels contribute to the elevation of [Ca2+]i among virtually all the platelets.