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Neuroscience Research Institute, Second Military Medical University (J.Q., S.-J.L., Y.-z.C.); and the Key Laboratory of Neurobiology, Shanghai Institute of Physiology (J.Q.), the Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology (L.-g.L., G.P.), and the Beijing Institute of Developmental Biology (X.-y.H.), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200433, China
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr. Y. Z. Chen, Neuroscience Research Institute, Second Military Medical University, 800 Xiang Yin Road, Shanghai 200433, China.
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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In all types of cells, intracellular calcium, as a second messenger, plays an important role in many physiological activities including contraction, neurite outgrowth, and neurotransmitter and hormone secretion. There is an increasing body of data concerning the rapid effects of glucocorticoid on the intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i). B inhibits calcium inflow in rat pancreatic islets (7). Cortisol rapidly reduces 45Ca2+ accumulation in the cichlid fish pituitary in vitro (8) and inhibits calcium currents in guinea pig hippocampal CA1 neurons via G protein-coupled activation of protein kinase C (9). Glucocorticoid suppressed intracellular calcium release in adenohypophyseal cells (10) and enhanced 45Ca2+ uptake induced by 70 mM K+ in prepared brain synaptosomes (11). Recently in our laboratory, it has been demonstrated that corticosterone inhibits the increase in [Ca2+]i induced by acetylcholine (ACh) and high potassium in rat adrenal medullary chromaffin cells (6) and inhibits the Ca2+ influx induced by bradykinin while not affecting intracellular Ca2+ release in PC12 cells (12).
The mechanism of the rapid effects of glucocorticoid on intracellular calcium is not clear. In the present study, we analyzed how glucocorticoid affects nicotine (Nic)-induced Ca2+ influx and further investigated the signal transduction pathway of glucocorticoids rapid nongenomic action, especially G protein and protein kinase C (PKC) that may be involved. Our results have shown that glucocorticoid inhibits the Ca2+ influx induced by Nic through a putative membrane receptor-mediated, pertussis toxin (PTX)-sensitive G protein-PKC pathway and for the first time directly demonstrated that PKC plays an important role in the nongenomic action by PKC activity assay.
| Materials and Methods |
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-conotoxin GVIA (
-CTX), and ß-mercaptoethanol were
purchased from Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis, MO). All
other chemicals used were of analytical grade.
Cell culture
PC12 cells were the generous gift of Dr. K. Kuba (Department of
Physiology, Saga Medical School, Saga, Japan). PC12 cells were grown in
DMEM with high glucose (Life Technologies, Grand Island,
NY) supplemented with 5% heat-inactivated FBS and 10%
heat-inactivated horse serum and incubated in a humidified atmosphere
containing 5% CO2 in air at 37 C. Flasks used to culture
PC12 cells had been coated with mouse tail collagen to facilitate cell
adherence to the surface of the substrate.
[Ca2+]i
measurements
PC12 cells grown on a 30-mm diameter dish with 7080%
confluence were washed three times with physiological saline solution
(PSS; containing 125 mmol/liter NaCl, 5.6 mmol/liter KCl, 2 mmol/liter
CaCl2, 1.2 mmol/liter MgSO4·7H2O,
1.2 mmol/liter NaH2PO4·2H2O, 10
mmol/liter HEPES, and 10 mmol/liter glucose, pH 7.4). Cells were
harvested by gently streaming PSS on the surface of the monolayers and
then dissociated to yield single cell by passing cells through a
pipette. They were suspended in 2 ml PSS containing 0.004% (wt/vol)
pluronic, then loaded with 5 µmol/liter fura-2/AM for 40 min at 37 C.
At the end of the loading period they were rinsed with PSS and
resuspended in 2 ml PSS. Cells were kept at 25 C in the dark and were
used within 2 h.
At the beginning of [Ca2+]i determination, 60 µl loaded cell suspension were added to glass coverslips coated with collagen and incubated in an incubator for 15 min at 37 C, then the coverslip was placed in a thermostatically ring chamber holding 300 µl incubation fluid. All drugs were added in volumes of less than 3 µl. All experiments were performed at room temperature (25 C) to minimize dye leakage.
The system used in our laboratory for calcium imaging and [Ca2+]i measurement was the MiraCal Imaging System supplied by Life Science Resources Ltd. (Cambridge, UK). It consisted of a Nikon Diaphot 200 inverted fluorescence microscope coupled to a MiraCal 1000TE low light level CCD camera and a computer station. Images were captured and quantitatively analyzed by the MiraCal version 2.3 software program (Life Sciences Resources). The peak excitation wavelength of the fura-2 shift from 380 to 340 nm upon Ca2+ binding and the ratio of emission intensities in each wavelength provide a measure of free [Ca2+]i. Changes in [Ca2+]i in the PC12 cells were imaged through a Nikon CF-fluor 10x or 20x objective (Melville, NY) and the CCD camera by calculating the ratio of fura-2 fluorescence at 510 nm, excited by UV light alternately at 340 and 380 nm. The light source was a 75-watt xenon and dual monochromater system. The intensity of the UV light was reduced by neutral density filters. Pairs of 340- and 380-nm images were obtained at 3.0-sec intervals and were corrected for background. Ratio images were calculated by computer, and the free [Ca2+]i was calculated using the well known ratio equation (13).
PKC activity assay
PC12 cells were resuspended in serum-free DMEM. After drug
treatment, cells were washed twice with PBS and homogenized on ice in
lysis buffer (25 mM Tris, 0.5 mM EGTA, 0.5
mM EDTA, 10 mM ß-mercaptoethanol, 1 µg/ml
leupeptin, 1 µg/ml aprotinin, and 1 mM
phenylmethylsulfonylfluoride). Homogenates were centrifuged at
86,000 x g for 30 min at 4 C. The pellet was
resuspended in lysis buffer containing 0.5% Triton X-100 and
homogenized again. The supernatant containing the solubilized membranes
was used as the membrane fraction (14). PKC activity in the membrane
fractions was measured using the SignaTECT PKC assay system from
Promega Corp. (Madison, WI) according to the
manufacturers instructions. Protein concentrations were determined
using the Bio-Rad protein assay kit with BSA as the reference standard
(15).
Statistical analysis
The statistical significance of differences between the groups
was assessed by Students t test. Differences were
considered significant at P < 0.05.
| Results |
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| Discussion |
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The peak free B concentration in rat serum reached 7.5 x 10-7 M during stress (19). The adrenal medulla in mammals is encapsulated by the adrenal cortex, and venous blood from the latter drains through the former in the intraadrenal portal vascular system before entering the general circulation. This vascular system subjects the chromaffin cells of the medulla to extremely high concentrations of adrenal cortical hormones, 2 orders of magnitude higher than those in the peripheral circulation (20). Thus, it is very likely that the glucocorticoid inhibits Nic-induced calcium influx in concentrations within the physiological range.
In a previous study, we have shown the time course of the inhibitory effect of B on the increase in [Ca2+]i induced by high K+ in PC12 cells, with the maximal effect at 5 min (21). In the present experiment, B could rapidly inhibit the Ca2+ influx induced by Nic after preincubation with B for 5 min. In good agreement with the above-mentioned results is the finding that B activated the PKC activity, with the maximal effect also at 5 min. As for B-activated PKC activity, the maximal response was 10-9 M at 37 C, which is 4 orders of magnitude lower than that at 25 C (10-5 M). The mechanism for the rightward shift in dose response at 25 C after B treatment is not yet clear. It is probably due to the influence of temperature itself, as temperature usually greatly alters the activity of enzymes.
In addition to the intracellular glucocorticoid receptor, plasma
membranes in several types of cells have binding sites for
glucocorticoids (22, 23, 24, 25). In our study, B-BSA could also activate PKC
activity. As B-BSA is practically membrane impermeable, our results
here provide support for the idea that B might act via putative
glucocorticoid membrane receptors. The data in Fig. 6
show that the
maximal effect on PKC activity was at 10-7 M
for B-BSA, 2 orders higher than that of free B. This rightward shift is
probably caused by the hindrance effect, because BSA is a very big
molecule that may hinder, and therefore attenuate, the action of B in
B-BSA.
It is known that undifferentiated PC12 cells contain PKC
, -
,
-
, and -
(26, 27). Our finding that Gö6976, which is a
compound that inhibits PKC
and -ß specifically, could block the
effect of B indicated that PKC
is probably involved in the
suppressive effect of B on calcium influx induced by Nic.
Glucocorticoids have been reported to inhibit the ACh-induced current in chromaffin cells and were reported to bind to the specific site on the outer cell membrane, probably on the ACh receptor-coupled channel (28). In our results, the mechanism of the inhibitory action of glucocorticoid may not be channel blocking, because PKC activator (PMA) could mimic the inhibitory effect of the B and PKC inhibitors, chelery and Gö6976, could reverse the inhibitory effect of B. Phosphorylation of AChR has been implicated in regulation of the ligand-gated ion channel. PKC has been shown to enhance receptor desensitization (29, 30). On the other hand, PKC can inhibit two types of calcium currents in GH3 cells (31), and the activity of N-type channels was regulated through phosphorylation by PKC (32). Furthermore, activation of PKC could reduce L-type calcium channel activity in PC12 cells (33, 34, 35) as well as GH3 pituitary cells (36), pituitary AtT-20 cells (37), and cultured embryonic chick dorsal root ganglion neurons (38). Our data suggest at least two possible sites of action for the nongenomic effect of glucocorticoid through phosphorylation by PKC. One is at AChR, and another is at calcium channels.
In Taricha, results from radioligand binding assays
demonstrated that [3H]B binding in neuronal membranes is
negatively modulated by nonhydrolyzable guanine nucleotide analogs,
especially GTP-
-S (39). Other studies revealed that
[3H]B-specific binding was enhanced in a
concentration-dependent manner by adding Mg2+ to the
assay buffer. These results are consistent with comparable studies for
known G protein-coupled receptors and provide evidence that the
putative membrane receptor of B is coupled to G protein (40).
Furthermore, it has been reported that cortisol inhibits the calcium
currents in guinea pig hippocampal CA1 neurons via G protein-coupled
activation of PKC (9). Clearly, our data also indicated that the
nongenomic action of B may be through a PTX-sensitive G protein-PKC
pathway. More importantly our study demonstrates for the first time
rapid stimulation of PKC activity by glucocorticoid in PC12 cells.
Previous studies have shown that glucocorticoids could rapidly inhibit the cAMP production and PRL release induced by vasoactive intestinal peptide by acting through specific glucocorticoid receptors in normal rat pituitary cells in culture (41), and cortisol also rapidly reduces PRL release and cAMP in the cichlid fish pituitary in vitro (8). In glucocorticoid inhibition of ACTH secretion and cAMP, the possible involvement of a PTX-sensitive G protein has been indicated in the mouse corticotroph tumor cell line AtT20 (42), but our data suggested that there were no effects of B on resting, forskolin-induced changes in cAMP accumulation and protein kinase A activity (not shown) in PC12 cells. These data indicated that the nongenomic signal transduction mechanisms of glucocorticoids rapid action varied in different tissues or cells.
Based on our data, a new model of the rapid nongenomic action of B in
PC12 cells is proposed (as summarized in Fig. 8
). In summary, glucocorticoid might act
via putative membrane receptors and inhibit the Ca2+ influx
induced by Nic through the PTX-sensitive G protein-PKC pathway in PC12
cells. PKC plays an important role in the mechanism of the nongenomic
action of glucocorticoid.
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| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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Received June 15, 1998.
| References |
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-opioid. Biochem Biophys Res
Commun 236:626629[CrossRef][Medline]
in nerve growth factor-induced arachidonic acid release
from PC12 cells. J Neurochem 66:18681875[Medline]
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