STIM1 enhances SR Ca2+ content through binding phospholamban in rat ventricular myocytes

Abstract

In ventricular myocytes, the physiological function of stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1), an endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum (ER/SR) Ca2+ sensor, is unclear with respect to its cellular localization, its Ca2+-dependent mobilization, and its action on Ca2+ signaling. Confocal microscopy was used to measure Ca2+ signaling and to track the cellular movement of STIM1 with mCherry and immunofluorescence in freshly isolated adult rat ventricular myocytes and those in short-term primary culture. We found that endogenous STIM1 was expressed at low but measureable levels along the Z-disk, in a pattern of puncta and linear segments consistent with the STIM1 localizing to the junctional SR (jSR). Depleting SR Ca2+ using thapsigargin (2–10 µM) changed neither the STIM1 distribution pattern nor its mobilization rate, evaluated by diffusion coefficient measurements using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching. Two-dimensional blue native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and coimmunoprecipitation showed that STIM1 in the heart exists mainly as a large protein complex, possibly a multimer, which is not altered by SR Ca2+ depletion. Additionally, we found no store-operated Ca2+ entry in control or STIM1 overexpressing ventricular myocytes. Nevertheless, STIM1 overexpressing cells show increased SR Ca2+ content and increased SR Ca2+ leak. These changes in Ca2+ signaling in the SR appear to be due to STIM1 binding to phospholamban and thereby indirectly activating SERCA2a (Sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase). We conclude that STIM1 binding to phospholamban contributes to the regulation of SERCA2a activity in the steady state and rate of SR Ca2+ leak and that these actions are independent of store-operated Ca2+ entry, a process that is absent in normal heart cells.