Affiliation:
1. From the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, and Department of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520
Abstract
In the preceding paper (Bevensee, M.O., R.A. Weed, and W.F. Boron. 1997. J. Gen. Physiol. 110: 453–465.), we showed that a Na+-driven influx of HCO3− causes the increase in intracellular pH (pHi) observed when astrocytes cultured from rat hippocampus are exposed to 5% CO2/17 mM HCO3−. In the present study, we used the pH-sensitive fluorescent indicator 2′,7′-biscarboxyethyl-5,6-carboxyfluorescein (BCECF) and the perforated patch-clamp technique to determine whether this transporter is a Na+-driven Cl-HCO3 exchanger, an electrogenic Na/HCO3 cotransporter, or an electroneutral Na/HCO3 cotransporter. To determine if the transporter is a Na+-driven Cl-HCO3 exchanger, we depleted the cells of intracellular Cl− by incubating them in a Cl−-free solution for an average of ∼11 min. We verified the depletion with the Cl−-sensitive dye N-(6-methoxyquinolyl)acetoethyl ester (MQAE). In Cl−-depleted cells, the pHi still increases after one or more exposures to CO2/HCO3−. Furthermore, the pHi decrease elicited by external Na+ removal does not require external Cl−. Therefore, the transporter cannot be a Na+-driven Cl-HCO3 exchanger. To determine if the transporter is an electrogenic Na/ HCO3 cotransporter, we measured pHi and plasma membrane voltage (Vm) while removing external Na+, in the presence/absence of CO2/HCO3− and in the presence/absence of 400 μM 4,4′-diisothiocyanatostilbene-2,2′-disulphonic acid (DIDS). The CO2/HCO3− solutions contained 20% CO2 and 68 mM HCO3−, pH 7.3, to maximize the HCO3− flux. In pHi experiments, removing external Na+ in the presence of CO2/HCO3− elicited an equivalent HCO3− efflux of 281 μM s−1. The HCO3− influx elicited by returning external Na+ was inhibited 63% by DIDS, so that the predicted DIDS-sensitive Vm change was 3.3 mV. Indeed, we found that removing external Na+ elicited a DIDS-sensitive depolarization that was 2.6 mV larger in the presence than in the absence of CO2/ HCO3−. Thus, the Na/HCO3 cotransporter is electrogenic. Because a cotransporter with a Na+:HCO3− stoichiometry of 1:3 or higher would predict a net HCO3− efflux, rather than the required influx, we conclude that rat hippocampal astrocytes have an electrogenic Na/HCO3 cotransporter with a stoichiometry of 1:2.
Publisher
Rockefeller University Press
Cited by
96 articles.
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