Atp depletion inhibits capacitative ca2+ entry in rat thymic lymphocytes. Marriott, Ian, and Michael J. Mason. Department of Physiology, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112.
APStracts 2:0172C, 1995.
The present study investigates the requirement for cellular ATP in the increase in plasma membrane Ca2+ permeability activated by the release of Ca2+ from intracellular stores in rat thymic lymphocytes (Capacitative Ca2+ Entry). The permeability state of this pathway following activation with thapsigargin was probed in control and ATP -depleted cells using fluorometric measurements of [Ca2+]i, Mn2+ entry, and membrane potential, and unidirectional measurements of Ca2+ uptake using 45Ca2+. The capacitative Ca2+ entry pathway was markedly inhibited in cells depleted of ATP by incubation in glucose -free solution containing oligomycin, antimycin A and 2-deoxy-D -glucose. These data cannot be explained on the basis of a loss of the transmembrane electrochemical gradient for Ca2+, alterations in intracellular pH or cellular Na+ content, a direct effect of the inhibitors of ATP production on the capacitative Ca2+ entry pathway, or the ability of thapsigargin to release Ca2+ from intracellular stores. Rather, these data are consistent with a requirement for ATP or a high energy phosphate donor in the activation and/or maintained activation of capacitative Ca2+ entry.

Received 5 January 1995; accepted in final form 11 April 1995.
APS Manuscript Number C11-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Cell Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 25 April 1995.