EVIDENCE FOR AGONIST-INDUCED EXPORT OF INTRACELLULAR CA2+ IN EPITHELIAL-CELLS

There is increasing evidence that some agonists not only induce intracellular Ca2+ increases, due to store release and transmembranous influx, but also that they stimulate Ca2+ efflux. We have investigated the agonist-stimulated response on the intracellular Ca2+ activity ([Ca2+]i) in the presence of thapsigargin (10(-8) mol/l, TG) in HT29 and CFPAC-1 cells. For CFPAC-1 the agonists ATP (10(-7)-10(-3) mol/l, n = 9), carbachol (10)-6)-10(-3) mol/l, n = 5) and neurotensin (10(-10)-10(-7) mol/l, n = 6) all induced a concentration-dependent decrease in [Ca2+]i in the presence of TG. Similar results were obtained with HT29 cells. This decrease of [Ca2+]i could be caused by a reduced Ca2+ influx, either due to a reduced driving force for Ca2+ in the presence of depolarizing agonists or due to agonist-regulated decrease in Ca2+ permeability. Using the fura-2 Mn2+ quenching technique we demonstrated that ATP did not slow the TG-induced Mn2+ quench. This indicates that the agonist-induced [Ca2+]i decrease in the presence of TG was not due to a reduced influx of Ca2+ into the cell, but rather due to stimulation of Ca2+ export. We used the cell attached nystatin patch clamp technique in CFPAC-1 cells to examine whether, in the presence of TG, the above agonists still led to the previously described electrical changes. The cells had a mean membrane voltage of -49 +/- 3.6 mV (n = 9). Within the first 3 min ATP was still able to induce a depolarization which could be attributed to an increase in Cl- conductance. This was expected, since at this time after TG stimulation all Ca2+ agonists still liberated some [Ca2+]i. When TG incubation was prolonged, agonist application led to strongly attenuated or to no electrical responses. Therefore, the agonist-stimulated [Ca2+]i decrease cannot be explained by the reduction of the driving force for Ca2+ into the cell. In the same cells hypotonic swelling (160 mosmol/l, n = 15) still induced a further [Ca2+]i increase in the presence of TG and concomitantly induced Cl- and K+ conductances. We conclude that the agonist-induced decrease of [Ca2+]i in the presence of TG probably unmasks a stimulation of [Ca2+]i export.