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TRANSLATIONAL PHYSIOLOGY
1Endocrine Unit and 2Department of Anesthesiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; and 3Department of Pediatrics and Endocrine Unit, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
Submitted 20 February 2008 ; accepted in final form 5 May 2008
| ABSTRACT |
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SLC34A3; rickets; hypercalciuria; nephrolithiasis
70% at least for the homozygous c.228del mutation identified in the original Bedouin kindred (7). Laboratory findings consist of hypophosphatemia due to insufficient renal phosphate retention, leading to rickets or osteomalacia. Compensatory upregulation of 1-
-hydroxylase in the kidney increases circulating 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D [1,25(OH)2D] levels, thereby enhancing intestinal absorption of calcium, which then causes hypercalciuria. Parathyroid hormone (PTH) and fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23) levels are generally normal or low (16). Heterozygous carriers of SLC34A3 mutations often exhibit (presumably absorptive) hypercalciuria, and these individuals display hypophosphatemia and elevation of 1,25(OH)2D, albeit in a less pronounced manner than observed in patients with HHRH, and bone changes are generally missing. Renal calcifications, either on presentation, or as the consequence of inappropriate therapy with vitamin D analogs, may be more common in HHRH than originally described (5, 6, 11, 16, 32). NaPi-IIc belongs to the type II class of sodium-phosphate cotransporters, which is, along with NaPi-IIa (SLC34A1), expressed in the proximal tubule of the kidney (3, 22, 23). In contrast to NaPi-IIa, which is expressed in segments S1–S3, expression of NaPi-IIc appears to be confined to the S1 segment (20). Furthermore, the latter interacts with the sodium-hydrogen exchanger regulator 1 and 3 (NHERF-1 and -3) via determinants in the third intracellular loop (17) and the COOH-terminal tail (35), and this interaction does not appear to involve a COOH-terminal PDZ-binding motif similar to that required for binding of NaPi-IIa to NHERF-1 and -2 (14). Like the expression of NaPi-IIa, the abundance of NaPi-IIc protein in the brush-border membrane is regulated by phosphate, PTH, and FGF-23 (21). However, disappearance of NaPi-IIc from brush-border membrane vesicles in response to the injection of PTH into mice appears to be considerably slower (hours) than the disappearance of NaPi-IIa (minutes) (29). Furthermore, NaPi-IIc protein appears to get reinserted into the membrane (8, 28), whereas NaPi-IIa is internalized via the clathrin-coated pits within minutes and degraded via the endosomal pathway (2). These differences in regulation may explain why NaPi-IIa can only partially compensate for the lack of NaPi-IIc in individuals affected by HHRH and why Npt-2c appears to compensate only partially for the lack of Npt-2a in the mouse (4, 31).
This inability to fully compensate for the lack of one transporter by expressing the respective other may also be related, at least partially, to the finding that Npt-2c is most prominently expressed during development (26). Consequently, adult Npt-2c null mice show no hypophosphatemia (27). Their residual moderate hypercalciuria and elevation of their serum calcium and 1,25(OH)2D levels furthermore indicate that the observed small increase in Npt-2a mRNA and protein is not sufficient to fully normalize phosphate homeostasis (27). Similarly, Npt-2a null animals show renal phosphate wasting, hypercalciuria, nephrocalcinosis, and skeletal abnormalities until weaning. However, older mice lacking Npt-2a have serum phosphate levels that are only slightly lower then those of wild-type littermates, which may be related to the upregulation of Npt-2c expression in these mice (4, 31). Mice that are null for both sodium-phosphate cotransporters appear to have a more severe phenotype than those lacking either cotransporter alone (24), which further supports the hypothesis that each transporter has a partially nonredundant role in the regulation of phosphate homeostasis. The hypophosphatemia in individuals with HHRH persists life-long, which is in contrast to the mild phenotype observed in Npt-2c null mice. It is therefore conceivable that some human NaPi-IIc mutations have a dominant phenotype and thus impair renal phosphate reabsorption more severely than predicted by the findings in the Npt-2c null mouse (24).
Because of these considerations, we sought to explore how two novel human NaPi-IIc mutations affect sodium-phosphate cotransporter function. Besides describing two SLC34A3 mutations, c.410C>T(p.T137M) (T137M) and g.4225_50del, which provide a molecular explanation for clinical and laboratory findings in a previously reported male who is affected by HHRH (11), our analyses indicated that the g.4225_50del mutation in SLC34A3 leads to poor mRNA expression, whereas the T137M mutation, which affects a conserved amino acid residue, appears to impair coupled sodium-phosphate cotransport.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Genetic studies. The entire SLC34A3 gene of the index case (III-2), spanning 5 kb including 800 bp of the 5'-promoter region and all 13 exons and intronic sequences, was amplified by PCR and subjected to nucleotide sequence analysis at the Massachusetts General Hospital DNA Sequencing Core Facility. PCR assays for the confirmation in III-2 and analysis of g.4225_50del and c.410C>T(p.T137M) in the available family members were designed as described (7). In brief, 20 µM of forward primer 50 and reverse primer 53 (see Table 1) were used with reagents from Qiagen (Valencia, CA), 250 µM dNTP at 94°C x 5-min initial denaturation followed by 40 cycles of 94°C x 1 min, 65°C x 1 min, 72°C x 1 min, and 72°C x 10-min final extension to obtain a normal 397-bp and mutant 370-bp PCR product for g.4225_50del. To amplify c.410C>T(p.T137M), primers 32 and 33 were used at 94°C x 5 min for the initial denaturation followed by 40 cycles of 94°C x 1 min, 70°C x 1 min, 72°C x 2 min, and 72°C x 10 min final extension, followed by restriction enzymatic digest with NlaIII to obtain fragments of 377 and 71 bp (wild-type) or 352, 71, and 24 bp (mutant) (Table 2).
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RT-PCR assay for ectopic expression of mutant NaPi-IIc mRNA in peripheral lymphocytes. To permit allele assignment of the identified mRNA species, we first performed segregation analysis for the marker SNP c.1140C/T(L385L) using genomic DNA of the index case III-2 and his parents. For this purpose, exon 12 of the SLC34A3 gene was amplified by PCR using a Qiagen PCR kit, containing Q reagent, a final MgCl2 concentration of 3.25 mM and 20 µM of primers 46 and 274 (Table 1) at 94°C for 5 min for the initial denaturation, followed by 94°C x 1 min, 63°C x 1 min, 72°C x 1 min for 40 cycles, and 72°C x 10 min final extension. The PCR product was subjected to restriction endonuclease digestion with BstU1 to obtain the fragments indicated in Table 2. RNA was extracted from peripheral lymphocytes of the index case III-2 using the Pax-Purification system (Qiagen, Valencia, CA) and subjected to RNAse-free DNAse treatment to remove residual genomic DNA followed by cDNA synthesis using a Qiagen Omniscript kit. Using primers 282 and 53, followed by nested PCR with primers 105 and 276, the region encompassing the c.1140C>T and g.4225_50del was amplified (cycler conditions: 94°C x 5 min initial denaturation, followed by 40 cycles at 94°C x 1 min, 65°C or 72°C x 1 min, 72°C x 1 min, and 72°C x 10 min final extension). The nested-PCR product was purified using spin columns (Qiagen, Qiaquick PCR Purification Kit) and subjected to nucleotide sequence analysis with primers 275 and 104 at the Massachusetts General Hospital DNA Sequencing Core Facility.
Generation of pEGFP-[M137]hNaPi-IIc and pEGFP-[446Stop] hNaPi-IIc. NaPi-IIc tagged with enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP) at the NH2 terminus (pEGFP-NaPi-IIc) was generated using BspEII/HindIII restriction sites and standard cloning techniques. A QickChange Site-Directed Mutagenesis Kit (Stratagene, La Jolla, CA) was then used to introduce into pEGFP-NaPi-IIc the T137M mutation and the V446Stop mutation. The latter mutation truncates NaPi-IIc after amino acid 446, which represents one possible reading frame for g.4225_50del. The mutagenesis primers were designed with the silent site selector DNA mutagenesis program by David Nix, http://rana.lbl.gov/SSS/ (see Table 1). Fifty nanograms pEGFP-NaPi-IIc were then amplified using Pfu-turbo DNA polymerase (Stratagene), Qiagen Q-reagent (5x), a final concentration of MgCl2 of 3.68 mM, and primers 190+191 to introduce M137 or 280+281 to introduce 446Stop, respectively, with the following thermal cycler conditions: initial denaturation at 94°C for 1 min; 16 cycles at 94°C for 30 s, 55°C for 1 min, and 65°C for 12 min; and final extension at 68°C for 10 min. The PCR product was then digested with the methylation-sensitive restriction endonuclease DpnI to selectively remove the original plasmid, followed by transformation into OneShot Top10 Escherichia coli cells. A XhoI or HindIII site engineered into the mutagenesis primers was used to identify the plasmid containing the new mutation, T137M or V446Stop, respectively. The correct sequence of the entire coding region of NaPi-IIc including the introduced mutations and EGFP was subsequently confirmed by nucleotide sequencing analysis at the Massachusetts General Hospital DNA Sequencing Core Facility.
cRNA synthesis. To permit functional analysis of T137M and V446Stop in vitro, polyadenylated cRNA for injection into Xenopus laevis oocytes was transcribed from PCR templates. PCR templates were generated using the Expand Long Template PCR System (Roche) with buffer 1, 200 µM dNTP and a final MgCl2 concentration of 1.5 mM, forward primer 238 containing a SP6 RNA polymerase promoter, the reverse primer 239 (see Table 1), and the plasmids pEGFP-[M137]hNaPi-IIc or pEGFP-[V446Stop]hNaPi-IIc, pEGFP-hNaPi-IIc, or pEGFP-hNaPi-IIa as templates. Cycler conditions were 94°C x 5 min initial denaturation, followed by 40 cycles of 94°C x 1 min, 94°C 30 s, 60°C x 30 s, 68°C x 6 min, and 68°C x 10 min final extension. cRNA was synthesized using the Message mMachine (Ambion, Austin, TX) followed by addition of a poly-A tail (Ambion) according to the manufacturer's instructions and purified with NucAway spin columns (Ambion). cRNA integrity was verified on 1.3% agarose/TAE electrophoresis gels, and yield was determined by optical density at 260 nm.
Transient expression of mutant and wild-type NaPi-IIc in opossum kidney cells. Opossum kidney cells were obtained (12) and maintained in DMEM/F12 (1:1, Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA), supplemented with 10% FBS (Hyclone, Logan, UT), 100 U of penicillin (base), 100 µg of streptomycin (base), and 0.25 µg of amphotericin B/ml (Invitrogen) at 37°C in 95% humidified air-5% CO2. Ten thousand cells per well were plated into a eight-well slide flask (Nalge Nunc, Naperville, IL), transfected with 0.1 µg plasmid DNA/well using Transfectamine (Qiagen) according to the manufacturer's instructions, and cultured for an additional 3 days before fixation with 4% paraformaldehyde in phosphate-buffered saline containing 0.5 mM CaCl2 and 1 mM MgCl2 for 20 min at room temperature. Epifluorescent images were obtained using a Nikon Eclipse E800 fluorescent microscope (Nikon, Melville, NY) after nuclear counterstaining with propidium iodide.
X. laevis oocyte preparation and injection. X. laevis maintenance and oocyte harvest procedures were approved by the Subcommittee on Research and Animal Care of the Massachusetts General Hospital. X. laevis oocytes (Nasco, Fort Atkinson, WI) were harvested by a minilaparotomy using sterile techniques, defolliculated in OR2 (170 mM NaCl, 5 mM KCl, 2 mM MgCl2, 10 mM HEPES, pH 7.5) with 1 mg/ml collagenase I from Clostridium histolyticum (C-9891, Sigma, St. Louis, MO, or CLS1, no. 4197, Worthington, Lakewood, NJ) rocking for 2 x 90 min at room temperature, rinsed several times with OR2, and then cultured in ND96+++ [96 mM NaCl, 2 mM KCl, 1.8 mM CaCl2, 1 mM MgCl2, 10 mM HEPES (pH 7.5), penicillin G sodium (10,000 U/ml), and streptomycin sulfate (10,000 µg/ml)] at 18°C as previously described (25). Oocyte injections were performed within the first 24 h of preparation with 100 nl of RNAse-free water containing 0–50 ng of wild-type and mutant cRNAs using a positive displacement micropipette. The medium was changed every day. Uptake and voltage-clamp experiments were done on day 3 after injection.
33P/22Na isotope uptake studies. Single or dual isotope sodium-phosphate uptake experiments were performed as previously described (1). [33P]orthophosphoric acid (PerkinElmer NEX080) and [22Na]sodium Cl (PerkinElmer NEZ081) were used at 0.1 mCi 33P/ml and 0.02 mCi 22Na/ml for the uptake experiments. On day 3 after injection, oocytes were washed three times with ND40+0.3 mM Pi, containing 40 mM NaCl, 60 mM choline chloride, 2 mM KCl, 1.8 mM CaCl2, 1 mM MgCl2, 10 mM HEPES-Tris (pH 7.4), and 0.3 mM K2HPO4/KH2PO4 followed by incubation with ND40+0.3 mM Pi containing 33P and/or 22Na in a total volume of 200 µl for 60 min. Uptake was stopped with ND0, in which NaCl is replaced by 100 mM choline chloride, and radionucleotide uptake of single oocytes was determined after lysis with 10% SDS and addition of 3 ml of scintillation fluid in a Beckman LS3801 counter using single-isotope mode or dual-isotope mode with quench-curve correction. Recounting after permitting decay of 33P for 3 mo and single-isotope experiments were used to independently confirm the dual-isotope uptake results. Saturation experiments were performed in ND100 (100 mM NaCl, 2 mM KCl, 1.8 mM CaCl2, 1 mM MgCl2, 10 mM HEPES-Tris, pH 7.4) supplemented with 0.001, 0.1, 0.3, 1, and 10 mM Pi and 0.01 mCi 33P/ml in a total volume of 200 µl. For the time course experiments, oocytes were incubated with ND100+2 mM Pi+0.01 mCi 33P/ml in a total volume of 200 µl for 10, 20, 30, 40, 60, and 90 min. An incubation time of 60 min was used for the dose-response curve and other uptake experiments. After 60 min, radioactive buffer was replaced by ND0 and incubation continued for 60 min at room temperature. 22Na efflux was tested after loading the oocytes expressing mutant and wild-type EGFP-hNaPi-IIc with ND0 containing 22Na. To stop the uptake, the oocytes were washed four times with ND0+2 mM Pi (time course) or ND0 (dose-response-efflux) and counted individually using the wide window 0–1,000 of a Beckman LS3801 in single-isotope mode.
Surface expression. Membrane fluorescence was appreciated as a bright rim in oocytes expressing wild-type and mutant EGFP-hNaPi-IIc when live-cell epifluorescence images obtained using a Nikon Eclipse E800 fluorescent microscope (Nikon) (Fig. 3D, e–g). However, significant intracellular accumulation of the cotransporters was observed, using this technique. We, therefore, decided to use an Axioplan (Zeiss, Thornwood, NY) Radiance 2000 (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA) confocal microscopic system to selectively and more accurately measure the membrane section of live oocytes to quantify surface expression, as shown in Fig. 3E (9). Images were obtained with Lasersharp 2000 (version 6.0) software using constant laser settings (intensity 30%, aperture 10%, gain 10%). Images were saved as TIF files and imported into IPLab 3.9.5 r2 for quantification using a personal computer. With this technique, the relative membrane fluorescence was linear over a wide range of cRNA injected into the oocyte and permitted detection of as little as 20% difference in surface expression with a coefficient of variation of <10%, as shown in Fig. 3B, which cannot be achieved by Western blot-based methods.
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Baseline current was determined at –50 mV with ND100. Oocyte viability was confirmed by resting membrane potentials below –18 mV in ND100 and by epifluorescence microscopy to confirm expression of EGFP-hNaPi-IIc. For intervals of 25 s, the solution then was changed to ND0, ND100+0.3 mM Pi, or ND100+0.3 mM Pi+3 mM phosphonoformic acid (PFA). Current-voltage (I-V) plots of sodium-dependent currents were obtained either by sequential runs in ND100 and ND0 for 20 s in 20-mV steps from –120 to +40 mV, following 5-s equilibration at the new membrane potential, or using a ramp from –120 to +40 mV over 1,600 ms following 15-s equilibration in either ND100 or ND0 and 5-s adjustment to 120 mV. Sodium-dependent currents were calculated by subtracting the currents obtained in ND0 from those obtained in ND100.
Statistical and data analysis. Radioactive isotope uptake and electrophysiological experiments were repeated with oocytes from at least three donor frogs, four to five oocytes/experimental condition. The electrophysiological data were recorded with Clampex8.2 (Axon Instruments) and analyzed with Campfit8.2 (Axon Instruments) using a personal computer. Data are expressed as means ± SE.
| RESULTS |
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Functional analysis of V446Stop. Because it cannot be definitively concluded from the absence of ectopic transcripts in peripheral lymphocytes or lymphoblastoid cells that truncated transcripts from the paternal allele are missing in the patient's kidney, we next functionally evaluated this mutation in opossum kidney cells and in X. laevis oocytes. For this purpose, we generated an expression plasmid containing the cDNA encoding for EGFP concatenated to the NH2 terminus of wild-type and mutant forms of human NaPi-IIc (pEGFP-hNaPi-IIc). This NH2-terminal EGFP tag has been successfully used for the functional evaluation of NaPi-IIa in the past (15) and does not affect the function of unmodified NaPi-IIc when identical amounts of cRNA are injected into oocytes and assayed for sodium-dependent phosphate uptake (data not shown). The EGFP tag permits the observation of membrane fluorescence as a measure of surface expression of the cotransporters using confocal fluorescent microscopy (Fig. 3E) (10). Images taken with constant laser settings were analyzed to obtain the relative membrane fluorescence, which was linear over a wide range of cRNA injected into the oocyte and permitted detection of as little as 20% difference in surface expression with a coefficient of variation of <10%, as shown in Fig. 3B. Using the Stratagene Qickchange method, a stop codon was introduced into pEGFP-hNaPi-IIc in place of the first codon of exon 13 (V446Stop). This mutation truncates the NaPi-IIc protein after the fifth membrane-spanning domain, the site predicted from an alternatively spliced hypothetical paternal transcript containing g.4225_50del. X. laevis oocytes injected with 25 ng/oocyte polyadenylated cRNA encoding for EGFP-[446Stop]hNaPi-IIc failed to show sodium-dependent 33P uptake (Fig. 3A) or measurable surface expression (Fig. 3B) compared with oocytes injected with 25 ng polyadenylated cRNA encoding for EGFP-hNaPi-IIc. Furthermore, EGFP-[446Stop]hNaPi-IIc accumulated intracellularly and failed to insert into apical patches of opossum kidney cells, the brush border equivalent of this cell line (10), when transiently transfected with pEGFP-[446Stop]hNaPi-IIc (Fig. 3D).
Functional analysis of T137M. We next evaluated the impact of T137M on NaPi-IIc function. When 25 ng/oocyte of polyadenylated cRNA encoding for EGFP-[M137]hNaPi-IIc were injected into X. laevis oocytes, a significant reduction of sodium-dependent 33P uptake to 20% was observed compared with wild-type (Fig. 3A). However, unlike V446Stop/g.4225_50del, surface expression of T137M was only reduced to 40% of wild-type and did not seem to fully explain this lack of function (Fig. 3B). Furthermore, after transient transfection into opossum kidney cells, the mutant cotransporter was inserted into apical patches, the brush border equivalent in this cell line (10) (Fig. 3D). To better understand how T137M affects cotransport, we first evaluated the rate of 33P uptake after correction for surface expression using confocal live-cell fluorescent microscopy and quantitative image analysis of membrane sections. This experiment indicated that the rate of 33P uptake was reduced to 40% compared with cells expressing wild-type NaPi-IIc (Fig. 3C). To allow for similar levels of surface expression, all subsequent experiments were performed with X. laevis oocytes injected with 50 ng of polyadenylated cRNA encoding for EGFP-[M137]hNaPi-IIc or 6.25 ng of polyadenylated cRNA encoding for EGFP-hNaPi-IIc, followed by 33P and 22Na isotope uptake experiments (13). 33P uptake by oocytes expressing mutant and wild-type transporters was, as expected, sodium dependent (data not shown). Furthermore, the half-maximal inhibitory concentrations for phosphate were similar for EGFP-[M137]hNaPi-IIc (0.14 ± 0.07 mM) and wild-type EGFP-hNaPi-IIc (0.43 ± 0.23 mM), and thus neither assay could explain the observed reduction in the rate of phosphate uptake. However, we observed a significantly increased Na conductance for EGFP-[M137]hNaPi-IIc, which resulted in an increased 22Na/33P ratio of 7.1 ± 3.65 for the mutant cotransporter (compared with 2.3 ± 0.4 for wild-type) (Fig. 4C). 22Na uptake was independent of extracellular phosphate and resistant to treatment with PFA, a known inhibitor of type II sodium-phosphate cotransporters (15) (data not shown). After the oocytes were loaded with 22Na in ND0, no 22Na efflux was observed after incubation of the oocytes in nonradioactive ND0 for 60 min at room temperature, which argues against recycling of sodium and makes nonspecific toxic effects caused by the mutant cotransporter unlikely (data not shown).
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| DISCUSSION |
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Compound heterozygous SCL34A3 mutations are relatively frequent in HHRH, and in 10 of the 14 independent kindreds described to date, the affected patients carry such mutations (7, 16, 19). This may indicate a high mutational rate of SLC34A3 and/or a relatively high frequency of heterozygous SLC34A3 mutations in the general population. Carriers of SLC34A3 mutations on one allele often present with hypercalciuria; however, no biochemical abnormalities were observed in the heterozygous parents II-1 and II-2 investigated in this study.
Despite the presence of hypercalciuria in homozygous or heterozygous carriers of SLC34A3 mutations, renal calcifications have been underappreciated in the original clinical descriptions of patients with HHRH and were generally attributed to the inappropriate treatment with vitamin D analogs (11, 32). Recently, however, stone formation was noticed as part of the initial presentation in two kindreds, in which carriers were heterozygous for c.586G>A (G196R), g.2259_359del, or c.1402C>T (R468W) (7). Furthermore, recurrent nephrolithiasis was described in heterozygous and homozygous carriers of g.2259_2359del (14) and in homozygous carriers of c.586G>A (G196R) (5, 6). Thus renal stones may be more common in HHRH but may have previously been missed, if patients were asymptomatic and appropriate imaging studies were not done.
Renal stones were also observed in the present case and in some of his first-degree relatives. g.4225_50del was found in an unrelated case with HHRH, and multiple heterozygous carriers of the deletion in this kindred also suffer from recurrent renal stones (5). However, given the small number of kindreds and since stone disease is a common condition in the general population, it cannot be excluded at the present time that the observed association of stones with SLC34A3 mutations occurred by chance alone.
Loss of function of both SLC34A3 alleles explains renal phosphate wasting. Opossum kidney cells and X. laevis oocytes are well-established cell systems used to study sodium-phosphate cotransporters (23, 26). When visualized in vivo with EGFP, we found that membrane expression in X. laevis oocytes and opossum kidney cells is markedly reduced for T137M and virtually absent after expression of V446Stop, the predicted transcript for g.4225_50del. Amino acid 137 is highly conserved in the known NaPi-IIc species, and T137M changes a polar residue to a hydrophobic residue, which may extend further the first membrane-spanning region and thus lead to abnormal folding or membrane insertion, thereby explaining the observed 40% reduction in surface expression with this mutation. Truncation of the NaPi-IIc protein after the fifth membrane-spanning domain by V446Stop deletes determinants of surface expression in the third intracellular loop of NaPi-IIc (17) and the COOH-terminal intracellular tail, which binds to NHERF-1 and -3 (35). Since ectopic transcripts of the paternal SLC34A3 allele were absent from lymphoblastoid cells of the affected individual III-2, nonsense-mediated decay may further impair expression of the paternal allele.
Interestingly, the father, II-2, who carries g.4225_50del on one of his SLC34A3 alleles, is biochemically normal and has no history of childhood rickets, hypercalciuria, or renal stones despite a predicted 50% reduction of NaPi-IIc function. By comparison, 70% of the heterozygous carriers of another previously reported null-allele, c.228del, displayed hypercalciuria (7). Alimentary modifiers including the intake of vitamin D (5, 6) and genetic factors may explain the reduced penetrance of hypercalciuria for g.4225_50del in the present kindred.
The relatively low abundance of NaPi-IIc in the proximal tubules, at least in adult rodents (26), and the lack of a hyphophosphatemic phenotype in the murine knockout of Npt-2c (27) raise the possibility that human NaPi-IIc mutations result in dominant effects. However, the presence of deletion and missense mutations throughout the cotransporter molecule rather than a few mutational hot spots is generally considered more suggestive for loss-of-function mutations (30), and our finding that both mutations significantly reduce surface expression continue to support the previous proposal that HHRH is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by loss-of-function mutations in NaPi-IIc.
T137 is a key determinant of sodium-phosphate cotransport in NaPi-IIc. After correction for surface expression, the rate of phosphate uptake in X. laevis oocytes injected with cRNA encoding for EGFP-[M137]-hNaPi-IIc was 40% of wild-type. Thus, in addition to affecting membrane expression as discussed above, T137 appears to be an important determinant of cotransport in NaPi-IIc. Because the apparent affinity constant for phosphate remained unchanged, it appears unlikely that T137 is involved in substrate binding. T137 is located in the first intracellular loop, which contains residues that appear to be important determinants of sodium-phosphate cotransport and stoichiometry in the related cotransporter NaPi-IIa (1). Therefore, we explored the possibility that this mutation affects Na:P stoichiometry. Compared with wild-type NaPi-IIc, EGFP-[M137]-hNaPi-IIc permitted uptake of 7.1 ± 3.65 sodium ions for each phosphate ion (Fig. 4C). Under the assumption that divalent phosphate, in agreement with previous reports for NaPi-IIa, is the preferred substrate also for NaPi-IIc (13), this may be due to cotransport of five Na+ ions in the presence of phosphate. Electrophysiological evaluation of EGFP-[M137]-hNaPi-IIc by dual-electrode voltage-clamp studies, however, suggested that the Na:P cotransport stoichiometry is unaltered since EGFP-[M137]-hNaPi-IIc remains nonelectrogenic (Fig. 4A). Instead, we noticed that the phosphate-independent rectified sodium conductance of EGFP-[M137]-hNaPi-IIc is significantly increased and unaffected by other cations (Fig. 4B). Mutation of T137 to methionine may thus lead to an uncoupling of cotransport in NaPi-IIc, and this uncoupling may render cotransport and thus the rate of phosphate uptake less efficient. This finding is consistent with the observed unchanged apparent Kd, but decreased Vmax of the mutant transporter for phosphate. Increased sodium uptake may furthermore reduce the sodium gradient across the cell membrane, which could lead to a certain degree of toxicity in the proximal tubular cell and could conceivably cause internalization and reduction of surface expression of the mutant cotransporter.
In summary, we here describe two novel SLC34A3 mutations, c.410C>T(p.T137M) on the maternal allele and g.4225_50del on the paternal allele, of a previously reported male affected by HHRH and recurrent nephrolithiasis (11). Functional analysis led to the conclusion that the paternal transcript carrying g.4225_50del is absent at least in peripheral lymphocytes of the index case and that the maternal mutation T137M affects a conserved amino acid residue, which appears to be important for coupled sodium-phosphate cotransport in NaPi-IIc.
| GRANTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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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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