Type 3 inositol trisphosphate receptors in RINm5F cells are biphasically regulated by cytosolic Ca2+ and mediate quantal Ca2+ mobilization

Abstract

There are three subtypes of mammalian Ins(1,4,5)P3 (InsP3) receptor, each of which forms an intracellular Ca2+ channel. Biphasic regulation of InsP3 receptors by cytosolic Ca2+ is well documented in cells expressing predominantly type 1 or type 2 InsP3 receptors and might contribute to the regenerative recruitment of Ca2+ release events and to limiting their duration in intact cells. The properties of type 3 receptors are less clear. Bilayer recording from InsP3 receptors of RIN-5F cells, cells in which the InsP3 receptors are likely to be largely type 3, recently suggested that the receptors are not inhibited by Ca2+ [Hagar, Burgstahler, Nathanson and Ehrlich (1998) Nature (London) 296, 81-84]. By using antipeptide antisera that either selectively recognized each InsP3 receptor subtype or interacted equally well with all subtypes, together with membranes from Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) cells expressing only single receptor subtypes to calibrate the immunoblotting, we quantified the relative levels of expression of type 1 (17%) and type 3 (77%) InsP3 receptors in RINm5F cells. In unidirectional 45Ca2+ efflux experiments from permeabilized RINm5F cells, submaximal concentrations of InsP3 released only a fraction of the InsP3-sensitive Ca2+ stores, indicating that responses to InsP3 are quantal. Increasing the cytosolic free [Ca2+] ([Ca2+]i) from approx. 4 to 186 nM increased the sensitivity of the Ca2+ stores to InsP3: the EC50 decreased from 281±15 to 82±2 nM. Further increases in [Ca2+]i massively decreased the sensitivity of the stores to InsP3, by almost 10-fold when [Ca2+]i was 2.4 μM, and by more than 3000-fold when it was 100 μM. The inhibition caused by 100 μM Ca2+ was fully reversed within 60 s of the restoration of [Ca2+]i to 186 nM. The effect of submaximal InsP3 concentrations on Ca2+ mobilization from permeabilized RINm5F cells is therefore biphasically regulated by cytosolic Ca2+. We conclude that type 3 InsP3 receptors of RINm5F cells mediate quantal Ca2+ release and they are biphasically regulated by cytosolic Ca2+, either because a single type 1 subunit within the tetrameric receptor confers the Ca2+ inhibition or because the type 3 subtype is itself directly inhibited by Ca2+.