The effects of chloroquine and other weak bases on the accumulation and efflux of digoxin and ouabain in HeLa cells

The ouabain-binding site of the α2 isoform of Na,K-ATPase plays a role in blood pressure regulation during pregnancy

BACKGROUND

The cardiotonic steroid/ouabain-binding site of the α subunit of Na,K-ATPase is thought to play an important role in cardiovascular homeostasis. Previously, we demonstrated the cardiotonic steroid-binding site of the α2 Na,K-ATPase is involved in adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-induced hypertension by using gene-modified α2(R/R) mice in which the cardiotonic steroid-binding site is relatively resistant to ouabain compared to the ouabain-sensitive wild-type α2(S/S) mice. To further explore the importance of this site in the cardiovascular system, we investigated blood pressure regulation during pregnancy in mice with the α2(R/R) isoform.

METHODS

The systolic blood pressure (SBP) of the α2(S/S) and α2(R/R) mice was measured before and during pregnancy by tail-cuff. The expression of the α isoforms of Na, K-ATPase in various tissues and plasma endogenous ouabain contents were assessed prior to pregnancy as well as days 7 and 17 of gestation.

RESULTS

The α2(S/S) mice showed a gradual decrease in the SBP during the first two trimesters, followed by an increase above the preconceptional level in the third trimester. However, the α2(R/R) mice exhibited a lower blood pressure in the third trimester. The cardiac expression of the α2 Na,K-ATPase in the α2(S/S) mice was significantly less than that of the α2(R/R) mice throughout the pregnancy. The plasma endogenous ouabain concentration significantly increased by twofold at day 17 of pregnancy in the α2(R/R) mice but not in the α2(S/S) mice.

CONCLUSIONS

The cardiotonic steroid-binding site of the α2 Na,K-ATPase plays a role in maintaining normal SBP during pregnancy.

Fast degradation of the auxiliary subunit of Na+/K+-ATPase in the plasma membrane of HeLa cells

The cell-surface expression and function of multisubunit plasma membrane proteins are regulated via interactions between catalytic subunits and auxiliary subunits. Subunit assembly in the endoplasmic reticulum is required for the cell-surface expression of the enzyme, but little is known about subunit interactions once it reaches the plasma membrane. Here we performed highly quantitative analyses of the catalytic (alpha1) and auxiliary (beta1 and beta3) subunits of Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase in the HeLa cell plasma membrane using isoform-specific antibodies and a cell-surface protein labeling procedure. Our results indicate that although the beta-subunit is required for the cell-surface expression of the alpha-subunit, the plasma membrane contains more alpha-subunits than beta-subunits. Pulse-labeling and chasing of the cell-surface proteins revealed that degradation of the beta-subunits was much faster than that of the alpha1-subunit. Ubiquitylation, as well as endocytosis, was involved in the fast degradation of the beta1-subunit. Double knockdown of the beta1- and beta3-subunits by RNAi resulted in the disappearance of these beta-subunits but not the alpha1-subunit in the plasma membrane. All these results indicate that the alpha- and beta-subunits of Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase are assembled in the endoplasmic reticulum, but are disassembled in the plasma membrane and undergo different degradation processes.

Discrepancy between the short and long term effects of ouabain on the sodium pumps of human cells grown in culture

1. Human cells (HeLa) were cultured for periods up to 48 h in growth medium in the absence or presence of a range of concentrations of cardiac glycosides. In some experiments the potassium concentration of the medium was varied between 0.3 mM and the usual 5 mM. 2. For periods up to 2 h in ouabain the association and dissociation rate constants were measured and the equilibrium binding constant (KD) calculated; the apparent equilibrium binding constant (K'D) was measured after 1-2 days growth in ouabain. 3. Ouabain had a K'D after 2 days of 2-6 nM in 5 mM K+ growth medium, a 4 fold greater blocking effect on sodium pumps after 2 days than expected from the association and dissociation rate constants measured in untreated or previously ouabain-treated cells. 4. This effect was: (a) approximately the same over a range of external potassium concentrations from 0.3 to 5 mM, although the absolute effect of ouabain over this range of potassium was much different; (b) probably not due to different isoforms of pumps in cells grown in ouabain compared to untreated cells; (c) apparently not a consequence of internalisation of pump-glycoside complexes. 5. We conclude that ouabain has only a limited access to sodium pumps in whole cells; this could be because sodium pumps cycle continuously through an inaccessible region of the plasma membrane. This effect needs to be considered both in the assessment of the magnitude of the long term effects of cardiac glycosides on cells, and in the measurement of the glycoside affinities of various isoforms of the pump.

Ouabain uptake by endocytosis in isolated guinea pig atria

Mammalian cells specifically internalize some molecular species through receptor-mediated endocytosis (RME). We have used four different experimental protocols to investigate whether ouabain enters cardiac cells of guinea pig atrium through this pathway. First, by electron microscope morphometry we found that ouabain increased endocytic vesicles in atrial cells. Second, by scintillation counting we found that [3H]ouabain uptake by the tissue is decreased by three treatments that decrease RME, i.e., NH4Cl, trifluoperazine, and 16 mM [K+]0. Third, by radioautography at the electron microscope level, we checked that in preceding experiments [3H]ouabain was washed out of plasma membrane after 60-min rinse and interiorized into the cardiac cells. Fourth, isometric tension recordings showed that the positive inotropic effect of ouabain was diminished in the presence of inhibitors, whereas that of a hydrophobic analogue, ouabagenin, was not affected. These results suggest that ouabain enters cardiac cells through RME and also that an intracellular site may, at least in part, be responsible for its inotropic effect.

The rate of uptake of cardiac glycosides into human cultured cells and the effects of chloroquine on it

HeLa cells grown on Petri dishes were either pulse labelled with various cardiac glycosides or grown in low concentrations of them for up to 2 days; either in the presence of chloroquine or not. The cells were then homogenised and the cell free homogenate layered on a continuous sucrose gradient; and the glycoside content and that of various markers measured. In another series of experiments HeLa cells were grown on plastic beads under the above conditions and then the content of glycosides and of some marker enzymes measured. The rate of internalisation of ouabain, digoxin and digitoxin from the plasma membrane preparation produced by the bead method is at 9% hr-1, similar to the rate of loss of digoxin and digitoxin from whole cells but much faster than that of ouabain. In the sucrose gradient experiments it was found that [3H]ouabain, digoxin and digitoxin all initially co-distribute with the plasma membrane marker, 5'-nucleotidase, and then leave this fraction of the homogenate at a fast rate when kept at 37 degrees, to co-distribute with the lysosomal marker, beta-hexosaminidase. At 2 degrees the ouabain remains co-distributed with the plasma membrane marker. The rate of transfer is estimated to be some 90% hr-1, much faster than previously thought. Chloroquine causes an increased retention of digoxin and digitoxin in the lysosomal fraction of the homogenate. These results are best explained by supposing that the sodium pump-glycoside complex rapidly enters a region of the peripheral cytoplasm, and that this region then controls the subsequent exit of digoxin and digitoxin from the cell. The main barrier for ouabain occurs at a stage later than this. The consequences of this model on other aspects of pump activity is discussed.