P-glycoprotein-associated chloride currents revealed by specific block by an anti-p-glycoprotein antibody. Han, Ernest S., Carlos G. Vanoye, Guillermo A. Altenberg, and Luis Reuss. Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-0641
APStracts 2:0408C, 1995.
The relationships between P-glycoprotein (Pgp) expression and plasma -membrane ion currents activated by cell swelling were studied in several cell lines using the whole-cell configuration of the patch -clamp technique. Swelling-activated Cl- currents (ICls) had similar characteristics in four cell lines, independent of whether or not Pgp was expressed. Addition of the anti-Pgp monoclonal antibody C219 or its Fab fragment to the pipette solution prevented ICls in cells expressing functional Pgp (assessed by immunoblots, immunofluorescence and transport of rhodamine 123), but not in cells lacking Pgp expression. A peptide analog of the C219 epitope abolished the effect of C219. Other anti-Pgp antibodies and mouse IgG were ineffective. C219 did not alter swelling-activated cation currents. Inasmuch as ICls is present in cells that do not express Pgp and C219 has no effect on ICls in these cells, we conclude that Pgp is not required for the ICls phenotype. However, when expressed in the plasma membrane, Pgp is involved, directly or indirectly, in ICls, but not in other swelling-activated currents.

Received 5 July 1995; accepted in final form 16 November 1995.
APS Manuscript Number C398-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Cell Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 8 December 95