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1- and
2- subunits is disrupted by butryate treatment of MDCK cellsDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Submitted 8 September 2006 ; accepted in final form 22 February 2007
| ABSTRACT |
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-subunit, the
2-isoform. It has been reported that heterologous expression of this
2-isoform in Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells results in apical delivery of the Na-K-ATPase. We created a MDCK cell line containing a tetracycline-inducible promoter and expressed either myc-tagged
2- or flag-tagged
1-subunits to study the surface localization of these
-subunit isoforms in polarized monolayers. We find that the
2-isoform is targeted to the basolateral surface of the plasma membrane in a polarization pattern indistinguishable from the
1-isoform. However, inclusion of butyrate in the growth medium leads to upregulation of overexpressed
1- or
2-subunits and to their appearance at the apical surface. The
2-isoform expressed in MDCK cells does not assemble into
1
2 heterodimers with the endogenous
1. Our findings demonstrate that expression of the
2-isoform does not lead to apical localization of the Na-K-ATPase in MDCK cells and provides evidence for an unexpected effect of butyrate on the trafficking of Na pump subunits. Madin-Darby canine kidney cells; apical localization; sodium pump subunits
The minimal functional unit of the Na-K-ATPase is comprised of a heterodimer of an
-subunit in complex with a
-subunit (9, 16). The
-subunit, which contains all the motifs essential for ATP hydrolysis and ion transport, is not trafficked out of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) until it assembles with the
-subunit (8, 19). Hence, one of the roles attributed to the
-subunit is that of a molecular chaperone, involved in the folding, stabilization, and targeting of the
-subunit (for a review, see Ref. 9). Localization signals (3, 13) and cytoskeletal binding motifs (7) have been identified in the
-subunit, suggesting that the
-subunit has a role in cellular sorting of the functional Na-K-ATPase heterodimer; however, other evidence establishes a role for the
-subunit in polarized Na-K-ATPase targeting (3436). Despite significant efforts to understand the mechanism of pump polarization, the signals and interactions that direct the localization are still not well established.
The most commonly expressed isoform of the
-subunit,
1, is present in most tissue types, including the kidney and is generally associated with basolateral targeting of the Na-K-ATPase in polarized epithelial cells. The
2-isoform, which was first identified as the adhesion molecule on glia (AMOG) (11), has restricted expression, limited primarily to particular regions in the brain (12, 20), epithelial cells of the eye (38), and inner ear (12), and is only normally found in the kidney during development before a strict basolateral polarization of the Na-K-ATPase is established (4). Abnormal apical localization of the Na-K-ATPase in kidney epithelia has been established in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) (39, 40) and has been correlated with the inappropriate expression of the
2-subunit in ADPKD cyst cells.
In an earlier report, the
2-isoform, which is not normally expressed in MDCK cells, was observed at the apical surface (39) in stably transfected MDCK cells. This led to the suggestion that the apical delivery of the Na-K-ATPase in ADPKD is driven by the presence of the apically targeted
2-isoform. However, a direct interaction of the
2-isoform with the endogenous
1-subunit was not established and the molecular factors leading to apical targeting of the
2-isoform were not identified. In a more recent report, the
2-isoform fused with YFP was found localized in the basolateral membrane when expressed in MDCK cells (34). The different
2-subunit localization in MDCK cells observed in these two reports has not been accounted for.
We investigated the localization of the
1- and
2-subunit isoforms stably expressed in MDCK cells under tetracycline (tet) regulation. We find that the
2-isoform, like the
1-isoform, is exclusively at the basolateral surface of the cell membrane under normal growth conditions. This strict polarization is disrupted by the presence of butyrate in the growth medium. The presence of butyrate causes the overexpressed
1- or
2-subunits to appear at the apical as well as the basolateral surface in an isoform-independent fashion. We find that only the inappropriate localization of the
1-isoform is associated with mistargeting of the
-subunit and that the
2-isoform does not assemble with the endogenous
at a detectable level. Since butyrate was present in earlier work in which the
2-isoform was observed apically in MDCK cells (39), our results provide an experimental basis for the observed apical delivery of
2 and document an unexpected effect of butyrate on Na pump localization.
| METHODS |
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Tetracycline-inducible MDCK, MDCK
2myc, and MDCK
1flag cells.
The background cell line was a type I, high-resistance MDCK cell line (6, 7), which was converted into a MDCK/FlpIn cell line by using the Flp-In system (Invitrogen). This system creates an isogenic cell line with single Flp recombination target (FRT) sites (8). This MDCK/FlpIn line was a kind gift to us from the late Dr. R. B. Gunn (Emory University School of Medicine at Atlanta). To generate a tet-inducible line (MDCK/FlpIn/T-Rex), MDCK/FlpIn cells were stably transfected with pcDNA6/TR (GIBCO/Invitrogen) that constitutively expresses the tet repressor under the control of the human CMV promoter. Colonies of cells were selected, screened, expanded, and harvested according to manufacturer's protocol. The selected MDCK/FlpIn/T-Rex host cell line was cotransfected with pOG44 and pcDNA5/FRT/TO expression vector harboring either the rat
2 cDNA fused to a COOH-terminal myc tag (
2myc) or the sheep
1 cDNA with a COOH-terminal flag tag (
1flag) within the FRT site for homologous recombination. Integration of the gene of interest was selected with 800 µg/ml hygromycin B resistance to create the MDCK/FlpIn/T-Rex/
2myc and the MDCK/FlpIn/T-Rex/
1flag cell lines. Expression of the gene of interest in this system is repressed by the tet repressor and repression is relieved by the addition of 1 µg/ml tet to the growth media. For ease of communication, in this work the MDCK/FlpIn/T-Rex cells are simply referred to as MDCK, the MDCK/FlpIn/T-Rex/
2myc as MDCK
2myc, and MDCK/FlpIn/T-Rex/
1flag as MDCK
1flag.
MDCK cell membrane preparations. Cells were grown to confluence on 10-cm plates, washed twice with PBS, scraped, pelleted (1,000 g for 10 min), and stored at 20°C. Pellets were thawed and resuspended in ice-cold homogenizing buffer (HB: 10 mM Tris·HCl, 2 mM EDTA, 250 mM sucrose, pH 7.4) and broken open by dounce homogenization and/or passing through a low gauge needle. Unbroken cells were removed by centrifugation at 1,000 g for 10 min. To obtain total membrane preparations, the supernatant was spun in a TLA-55 rotor for 30 min at 55,000 rpm. Alternatively, the supernatant was loaded into a 5-step sucrose gradient and membrane-enriched fractions were separated by ultracentrifugation. Pellets were suspended in HB supplemented with 1x protease inhibitor cocktail (Roche 1836153), and protein concentrations were determined by the Lowry method as previously described (15).
Na-K-ATPase activity. The difference in phosphate (Pi) liberated by 50 µg of total membrane protein in the presence or absence of 150 µM ouabain was determined as previously described (15) and is reported here in nanomoles of liberated Pi per milligram of protein per hour.
Confocal imaging. Cells were grown in 6-mm transwells until an elevated transepithelial resistance was observed. Monolayers were washed twice with ice-cold PBS buffer supplemented with 0.1 mM CaCl2 and 1.0 mM MgCl2 and then fixed by submerging the transwell insert in 20°C acetone for 30 s. Cells were washed twice with PBS and then the transwell membranes were excised from the inserts and blocked overnight at 4°C in immunofluorescence blocking buffer (IFBB; 1% gelatin, 1% bovine albumin, 6 mg/ml donkey serum, 6 mg/ml goat serum, and 0.05% Na-azide in PBS). Cell monolayers attached to filter membranes were immunoprobed sequentially with 1:50 anti-KETYY (gift from Dr. J. Kyte, University of California, San Diego), 1:50 anti-myc (Cell Signaling no. 2276), 1:1,000 Cy 3-anti-mouse (Jackson Laboratories), and 1:1,000 Alexa 488-anti rabbit (Molecular Probes) diluted into IFBB. Samples were washed four times for 5 min in PBS after 1-h incubation with each antibody. Samples were mounted using vectashield hard-set mounting medium with DAPI (Vector Laboratories), and confocal images were collected on a Zeiss LSM 5 Pascal with a multitracking configuration optimized for detection of Cy 3, Alexa 488, and DAPI.
Growth in transwells.
MDCK cells were plated at
50% confluence in Costar transwell-permeable supports with 0.4-µm-pore size. Cells in transwells were maintained as described above with the exception that they were fed daily with fresh supplemented DMEM but never split.
Measurement of transepithelial resistance.
Monolayer transepithelial resistance (RTE) of MDCK cells grown in transwells was measured daily under sterile conditions with a World Precision Instruments EVOM Epithelial Voltohmmeter according to manufacturer's instructions. Resistance in Ohms was calculated per manufacturer's instruction according to
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Cell surface biotinylation. The biotinylation protocol was based on the previously described method (14). Cells were grown in 24-mm transwells until polarized monolayers had formed. Plates were placed on ice and washed once with ice-cold DMEM (supplemented only with 25 mM HEPES) and twice with ice-cold PBS buffer supplemented with 0.1 mM CaCl2 and 1.0 mM MgCl2. Freshly prepared EZ-LINK Sulfo-NHS-SS Biotin label (Pierce) was added (0.5 mg/ml) to biotinylation buffer (10 mM triethanolamine, pH 7.5, 2 mM CaCl2, 150 mM NaCl). Biotinylation reagent or buffer was added to the apical (0.5 ml) or basolateral compartment (1.5 ml) and incubated on ice with slow rocking in a 4°C cold room for 25 min. Biotinylation buffer was replaced with 1 ml (apical) and 2 ml (basolateral) quench buffer (PBS supplemented with 0.1 mM CaCl2, 1.0 mM MgCl2, and 100 mM glycine) and incubated on ice with slow rocking motion at 4°C for 20 min. This quench-wash step was repeated once, quench buffer was removed, and the permeable membrane was excised from the transwell with a scalpel and transferred to a 1.5-ml tube containing 0.75 to 1 ml lysis buffer (1% Triton X-100, 150 mM NaCl, 5 mM EDTA, 50 mM Tris, pH 7.5) for 1 h at 4°C with end-over-end rotation. The permeable membrane was removed, and samples were spun at 10,000 g for 10 min at 4°C. An aliquot (515% of sample) was removed to determine protein concentration and to compare protein expression. The remaining sample was incubated with 75 to 100 µl of streptavidin-coupled sepharose beads in a mini-spin column at 4°C overnight with end-over-end rotation. Buffer was removed from the column by centrifugation (500 g for 1 min at 4°C), and samples were washed three times with lysis buffer, twice with salt wash buffer (0.1% Triton X-100, 500 mM NaCl, 5 mM EDTA, 50 mM Tris, pH 7.5), and once with no-salt wash buffer (10 mM Tris, pH 7.5). After a final spin at 10,000 g for 5 min, 50 to 100 µl of 2x sample buffer (SB) containing 80 to 100 mM DTT were added to beads. The DTT breaks the sulfhydryl (SS) bond between the biotin and the protein-reactive group in the label to elute labeled proteins from the beads. Samples were separated by SDS-PAGE and subjected to Western blot analysis.
Coimmunoprecipitation. Thirty micrograms of plasma membrane-enriched fractions were solubilized in 1% NP-40, 150 mM NaCl, 10 mM Tris, 2 mM EDTA, pH 7.5, for 1 h at 4°C with rotation. Samples were spun at 55,000 rpm in TLA-55 for 30 min, and supernatant was incubated with 20 µl of anti-Loop or 5 µl of anti-myc antibody for 1 h at 4°C. One hundred microliters of protein G-Sepharose beads were added, and samples were incubated overnight at 4°C with rotation. Samples were spun at 8,000 g for 30 s, supernatant was aspirated, and washed three times with solubilization buffer, once with 0.5 M NaCl, 10 mM Tris, 2 mM EDTA, pH 7.5, and once with water. Precipitate was eluted from beads with SB, separated by SDS-PAGE, and subjected to Western blot analysis.
Western blot.
Samples in 1x or 2x SB supplemented with 80 to 100 mM DTT were heated to 80°C for 6 min and then subjected to SDS-PAGE and transferred to PVDF membranes. Blots were blocked with 5% milk in PBS for at least 1 h before immunoprobing in PBS with 0.5% milk, 0.1% Tween for 1 h to overnight followed by 3 x 10-min PBS-Tween washes. Antibodies were used for Western blot at the following dilutions: 1:400,000 of anti-
1 (ABR MA3-929), 1:400,000 of anti-
1 (ABR MA3-930), 1:500 of anti-
2 (BD Transduction Laboratories no. 610915), 1:1,000 of anti-KETYY (gift from Dr. J. Kyte, University of California, San Diego), 1:1,000 of anti-myc (Cell Signaling no. 2276), 1:1,000 of anti-flag M2 (Sigma F-3165), 1:500 of anti-E-cadherin (AbCam ab8996), 1:5,000 to 25,000 of horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated goat anti-mouse or anti-rabbit IgG. HRP-conjugated secondary antibodies and chemiluminescent reagents were used for signal detection.
| RESULTS |
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-subunits in MDCK cells.
To study the polarized localization of
-isoforms of the Na-K-ATPase, we created a system in which a protein can be selectively expressed in MDCK cells under the control of a tet-inducible promoter. The cDNA for either the rat
2-isoform with a COOH-terminal myc tag or the sheep
1-isoform with a COOH-terminal flag tag was introduced into the tet-controlled site and stable lines were isolated. Western blot analysis shown in Fig. 1A demonstrates tet-induced expression of
2myc, which is detectable with either the anti-myc (panel 1) or anti-
2 (panel 2) antibodies, in MDCK
2myc. The expression of the
2myc subunit does not greatly alter the levels of the endogenous
1- or
-subunits (Fig. 1A, panels 3 and 4). Western blot signal for the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca pump (SERCA), a homolog of the Na-K-ATPase
-subunit which functions independent of any
-subunit, served as a loading control (Fig. 1, A and B, bottom).
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1flag is only expressed in the presence of tet in the MDCK
1flag cells, as revealed by Western blot with the anti-flag antibody (Fig. 1B, panel 1). Tet-induction of
1flag in MDCK
1flag cells markedly increases the level of
1 subunits (Fig. 1B, panel 2). Although an associated increase in translation of
has been observed on expression of
1 in MSV-MDCK cells (25), we find that overexpression of
1flag in the tet-inducible MDCK cells does not significantly increase the cellular level of the endogenous
-subunit (Fig. 1B, panel 3). The Na-K-ATPase activity measurements presented in Fig. 1C confirm that overexpression of
1flag or
2myc subunits by tet induction does not increase the cellular level of the ouabain-sensitive Na-K-ATPase activity, consistent with a stable cellular level of
-subunits observed by Western blot analysis in Fig. 1, A and B.
Cellular localization of
2myc in tet-induced cells.
Confocal microcopy was performed to compare the cellular localization of the
2myc with the endogenous Na-K-ATPase in tet-induced MDCK
2myc cells. Figure 2A, top left, shows the basolateral localization of the endogenous
-subunit of the Na-K-ATPase in a focal plane located in the center of the cell monolayer, as detected with the
-subunit COOH-terminal antibody, anti-KETYY. This basolateral localization of the endogenous Na-K-ATPase has been well established in MDCK cells. Unlike the endogenous pump, the
2myc subunit was detected primarily in intracellular compartments by the anti-myc antibody (Fig. 2A, top right). DAPI staining of the nuclei is presented in the bottom left and a merged image in the bottom right of Fig. 2A. These images are consistent with previous observations (17) that the majority of the overexpressed
2myc subunits are located in intracellular compartments.
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2myc and to determine whether any of the expressed
2myc was targeted to the cell surface, we performed fractionation of cell membranes isolated from tet-induced MDCK
2myc cells. Results presented in Fig. 2B establish that the
2myc is present at significant levels in all three fractions (Fig. 2B, top). Whereas the endogenous
- and
1-subunits are primarily located in the plasma membrane-enriched fraction (Fig. 2B, middle and bottom),
2myc in the plasma membrane-enriched fraction (P) migrates at a higher molecular weight than the predominant form in the endoplasmic reticulum-enriched fraction (E). Deglycosylation experiments using Endo H and PNGase F confirmed that the
2myc in the ER is a core N-linked glycosylated form (
2mycC) and the shift in molecular weight in the plasma membrane-enriched fraction is due to modification of the core glycosylation chains to a higher-order form (
2mycH) (data not shown).
Polarized basolateral localization of
1 and
2myc detected by surface labeling of polarized monolayers.
To characterize the polarized distribution of surface
-isoforms in MDCK cells, surface proteins of an MDCK
2myc cell monolayer grown on a permeable support were biotinylated from either the apical (A) or basolateral (B) compartment. The Western blot in Fig. 3A detects endogenous
1-subunit only at the basolateral surface and not the apical surface. This result is consistent with the well-established selective targeting of the endogenous Na-K-ATPase to the basolateral surface of MDCK cells (5, 14). Figure 3B demonstrates that the
2myc subunit at the cell surface is also localized predominantly at the basolateral and not the apical membrane domain. This result establishes that the heterologous
2-isoform at the cell surface exhibits the same basolateral polarization as the endogenous
1-isoform and is in contrast to the
2myc apical localization report by Wilson et al. (39).
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2myc.
When the
2-subunit was detected at the apical surface of MDCK cells in previous work, butyrate was present in the growth media (39). However, butyrate was not present in Fig. 3 or in previous work in which the
2-subunit fused to GFP was found exclusively in the basolateral surface of MDCK cells (34). We therefore examined the role of butyrate in the expression and targeting of Na-K-ATPase subunits. We found that butyrate treatment of tet-induced MDCK
2myc cells increases the tet-induced expression of the
2myc subunit in these cells (Fig. 4A, bottom). We also observed a decrease in the cellular level of endogenous
1-subunits in butyrate-treated MDCK
2myc cells (Fig. 4A, middle), although the cellular level of
-subunits remained fairly consistent after butyrate treatment (Fig. 4A, top).
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2-subunit in MDCK cells, we biotinylated surface proteins from tet-induced or uninduced MDCK
2myc cells grown in the presence or absence of butyrate. In the absence of butyrate, the
2myc is only present on the basolateral surface (Figs. 3B and 4B, top). However, in the presence of butyrate, the
2myc subunit can be labeled from both the apical and basolateral compartments (Fig. 4B, top). Western blot analysis of the same samples detecting the Na-K-ATPase
-subunit with the anti-KETYY antibody reveals that the endogenous
-subunit remains polarized to the basolateral surface during butyrate treatment, regardless of
2myc induction (Fig. 4B, bottom). This demonstrates that the presence of butyrate does not allow the biotin label to cross the monolayer.
2myc subunit does not associate with endogenous Na-K-ATPase
-subunits in MDCK cells.
Our observation that endogenous pump
-subunit basolateral localization is not affected by altered distribution of the surface-targeted
2myc subunit in the presence of butyrate (Fig. 4B, bottom) suggests that the
2myc does not assemble with the Na-K-ATPase
-subunit in MDCK cells to form an
1
2 heterodimer. We therefore performed coimmunoprecipitations from the plasma membrane-enriched fraction of tet-induced MDCK
2myc cells with antibodies directed at either the myc epitope or the endogenous
-subunit to establish whether
1
2 assembly occurs. Figure 5A, top, shows that the myc antibody is capable of immunoprecipitating the
2myc subunit from a plasma membrane-enriched sample. However, the myc antibody does not coimmunoprecipitate the
-subunit (Fig. 5A, bottom). Likewise, an antibody directed at the major cytoplasmic loop of the
-subunit which precipitates the
-subunit (Fig. 5B, middle) does not coimmunoprecipitate the expressed
2myc (Fig. 5B, top), although the endogenous
1-isoform is coimmunoprecipitated under the same conditions (Fig. 5B, bottom). Butyrate treatment for 2 days at 10 mM enhances the expression of the tet-induced
2myc (see Fig. 4A) but does not alter coimmunoprecipitation results (Fig. 5C). Control precipitations lacking protein input or antibody provided no evidence to suggest these immunoprecipitation results were artifact (data not shown). Thus the findings shown in Fig. 5 support the implications of the biotinylation data shown in Fig. 4 that the
- and
2-subunits do not assemble in the MDCK cells, although
1 does associate with endogenous
1-subunits. It has previously been shown that
1
2 heterodimers can form in the absence of
1 (2, 6).
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2myc cell line (Fig. 4A), a reduction of the total cellular Na-K-ATPase
1 occurs after butyrate treatment of the background MDCK cell line (Fig. 6B, bottom). A smaller but consistent reduction of the
-subunit in the total lysates was also observed (Fig. 6B, top). It should be noted that equal protein concentrations were loaded in Fig. 6B, so the proportionately larger reduction in the endogenous
1-subunit cannot be explained by inhibited cell growth or cell death in the butyrate condition. Whether this observation reflects different degradation rates for the two subunits is the subject of ongoing work.
During butyrate treatment, both the endogenous
- and
1-subunits of the Na-K-ATPase in MDCK cells remain localized to the basolateral surface (Fig. 6C). A reduced amount of surface-labeled endogenous Na-K-ATPase is seen in the presence of butyrate (Fig. 6C), which is expected given the loss of Na-K-ATPase subunits, especially
1-subunits during butyrate treatment. The conservation of the basolateral localization of the endogenous subunits during butyrate treatment is in sharp contrast to the loss of polarization of the overexpressed
2myc isoform in Fig. 4B.
Butyrate causes mislocalization of Na-K-ATPase overexpressed
1-subunits.
To determine whether the loss of basolateral polarization of the
2myc subunit by butyrate (Fig. 4B) is isoform specific, butyrate treatment and surface biotinylation were performed with MDCK
1flag cells. These cells overexpress
1flag from the same chromosomal site previously used for
2myc expression. Figure 7A, bottom, demonstrates that butyrate treatment enhances the tet-induced overexpression of the
1flag in MDCK
1flag cells, analogous to the increase of
2myc observed in Fig. 4A. Under the tet-induced butyrate-stimulated condition, the core glycosylated form of the
1flag subunit (
1flagC) is the major form of
1 detected (Fig. 7A, middle and bottom), which is not the case in the absence of butyrate-stimulated overexpression (see Fig. 1B). The glycosylation status of this form has been confirmed by deglycosylation experiments with Endo H and PNGase F (data not shown). A decreased mobility of the
1flag carrying higher-order glycosylation (
1flagH) is also observed (Fig. 7A, middle and bottom).
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1flag cells reveals that the endogenous Na-K-ATPase subunits and the expressed
1flag are selectively located in the basolateral surface in the absence of butyrate, as expected (Fig. 7B). However, just as with the
2myc, overexpressed
1flag subunits are detected at the apical surface as well as the basolateral surface in the presence of butyrate (Fig. 7B, middle). Unlike the mislocalized
2myc, the endogenous
-subunit is clearly mistargeted to the apical surface along with the mislocalized
1flag (Fig. 7B, top). To confirm that this apical detection is not due to an overall loss of cell polarity, Western blot detection was also performed for E-cadherin, which remains at the basolateral surface (Fig. 7B, bottom) in the butyrate-treated tet-induced MDCK
1flag cells. | DISCUSSION |
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1- and
2-isoforms of the Na-K-ATPase
-subunit in a tet-inducible MDCK expression system to compare the processing and polarized targeting of the Na-K-ATPase subunits. We found that both the
1- and
2-isoforms are localized exclusively to the basolateral membrane at the cell surface under normal growth conditions. When either the
1- or
2-isoform is expressed in the presence of butyrate, the overexpressed
-subunit is detected at both the apical and basolateral surfaces.
Effect of
-subunit overexpression on endogenous Na-K-ATPase levels.
It has been previously reported that overexpression of the
1-subunit leads to a corresponding increase in the expression of endogenous
in some cell systems in which the
level is a limiting factor in Na-K-ATPase production (10, 25, 27, 28). However, we have seen that the tet-induced expression of
2myc or
1flag in our MDCK cell system does not lead to a significant change in expression of either endogenous
or
1 Na-K-ATPase subunits. Our findings suggest that expression of the
-subunit is not a limiting factor for the formation and expression of Na-K-ATPase heterodimers in MDCK cells. This, in turn, suggests that the
-subunit is the limiting factor for pump expression and that unassociated
-subunits might be expressed in excess to the 1:1 ratio of 
necessary for the formation of the Na-K-ATPase heterodimer (23). Since an additional role for the
-subunit as an adhesion molecule has been suggested (18, 31), it is important to determine whether there are unassociated
-subunits present in cells and whether the
-subunits perform a function beyond their role in the sodium pump.
Surface localization of the
2-isoform expressed in MDCK cells.
Under normal cell growth conditions, the
2-isoform is strictly localized to the basolateral compartment when expressed in MDCK monolayers, just like the
1 isoform. We showed that the presence of butyrate in the growth media is the likely cause of
2-isoform apical localization reported in previous work (39). This effect is not isoform specific, as butyrate disrupts the polarization of expressed
-subunits when either the
1- or
2-isoforms of the
-subunit are overexpressed. Our finding and those of others (34) demonstrate that there is no difference in the localization of the
2-isoform when expressed in MDCK cells, contrary to previous claims. Although our work does not directly address the role that the
2-isoform may play in PKD, it is clear that the expression of the
2-isoform is not sufficient to account for mistargeting of the Na-K-ATPase in an otherwise normal system.
Cellular effects of butyrate in MDCK cells. Butyrate is a small fatty acid normally located in the digestive tract as a metabolic product of intestinal flora in vivo where it is the primary energy source for colonocytes. In vitro, butyrate has been observed to induce a number of cellular alterations, which vary between cell lines. The primary effect attributed to butyrate is inhibition of histone deacetylase activity, which leads to alterations in protein expression and can lead to cell cycle arrest, and eventually induce apoptosis (for a review, see Refs. 17, 21).
We observed a decrease in the total cellular level of the endogenous
-subunit in the presence of butyrate. Interestingly, it has been demonstrated that the presence of the Na-K-ATPase
-subunit is necessary for normal cell-cell contacts in MDCK cells (27) and suggested that interacting
-subunits between cells may serve an adhesive role (31). It has been previously noted that the introduction of
1 into MSV-transformed MDCK cells allows those cells to regain elevated RTE values (26). The loss of RTE we observe when MDCK cells are treated with butyrate along with the drop in the
-subunit level fit well with this finding and together suggest that the presence of the
1-subunit may contribute to the high cellular RTE in MDCK cells.
A reduction of basolateral short-circuit current (ISC) attributed to decreased Na-K-ATPase activity has also been found in butyrate-treated MDCK cells (24). We showed that prolonged treatment with butyrate decreases the total level of endogenous pump subunits (Figs. 4A, 6B, and 7A) and can reduce the Na-K-ATPase at the cell surface (Figs. 4A and 6C). This suggests that butyrate may stimulate the internalization and degradation of the Na-K-ATPase as well as potentially influencing transcriptional regulation of expression.
Although butyrate decreases the levels of endogenous
-subunits, it increases expression off the CMV promoter (24, 37) and therefore leads to stimulated expression of the
2myc or
1flag (Figs. 4A and 7A) in the tet-induced MDCK cell system. A number of observations suggest that it is unlikely that the inappropriate apical localization of these subunits (Figs. 4B and 7B) is simply a result of the butyrate-enhanced expression overloading the cellular sorting and targeting mechanism. First, in the absence of butyrate, we do not observe inappropriate delivery of overexpressed
-subunits even after prolonged tet induction which increases expression (data not shown). Second, in surface labeling experiments, we do not detect the core glycosylated
1flagC at the plasma membrane (Fig. 7B), although the cellular level of
1flagC is greatly increased in the presence of butyrate (Fig. 7A). Finally, we do not observe apical localization or decreased surface accessibility of E-cadherin in butyrate-treated cells, which indicates that the sorting and delivery mechanisms are functioning correctly for this basolateral membrane protein. Our finding of maintained E-cadherin polarization in the presence of butyrate is consistent with previous observations in human colon cancer cells (1). Based on the results presented here, it appears that butyrate specifically alters the delivery of newly expressed Na-K-ATPase
-subunits and
1
1 heterodimers when expressed in MDCK cells but does not cause inappropriate localization of other basolaterally directed proteins. From our current results, it is not clear whether the changes in glycosylation that we observe in the presence of butyrate (Figs. 4 and 7) are related to the mistargeting. However, a precedent for glycosylation of
-subunits influencing polarization has been previously established (33).
Isoform-specific association of Na-K-ATPase subunits.
Through the use of butyrate, we observed the mistargeting of endogenous MDCK Na-K-ATPase
1-subunit to the apical surface with exogenously overexpressed
1-subunit (Fig. 7B). However, the endogenous
1 is not similarly mistargeted with the
2-subunit expressed under the same conditions (Fig. 4B). Furthermore, co-IP experiments under conditions in which
1
1 heterodimers are observed fail to show
2 association with
(Fig. 5). These findings suggest that the
1-subunit in MDCK cells has a higher affinity for the
1-isoform than for the
2-isoform and are consistent with reports of lower affinity between subunits in an
1
2 than an
1
1 or
2
2 heterodimeric configuration of the Na-K-ATPase when expressed in amphibian oocytes or in insect cell lines (2, 29, 30).
In summary, we established that the
2-isoform of the Na-K-ATPase is targeted to the basolateral surface of MDCK cells. We also show that the small fatty acid butyrate causes the inappropriate delivery of overexpressed
1- and
2-subunits to the apical surface of MDCK cells. This finding identifies a novel effect of butyrate in the polarized delivery of these important membrane proteins.
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The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. The article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
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-subunits to plasma membrane in MDCK cells. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 262: C470C483, 1992.This article has been cited by other articles:
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