Regulation of fluid-phase endocytosis in alveolar macrophages. Pataki, Gy, L. Czopf, T. Jilling, N. Marczin, J. Catravas, and S. Matalon. Departments of Anesthesiology, Physiology and Biophysics, and Pediatrics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35233 and Departments of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia 30912
APStracts 2:0097L, 1995.
We investigated whether fluid-phase endocytosis in rabbit alveolar macrophages (AM) was regulated by alterations in intracellular cAMP. Suspensions of freshly isolated AM were incubated with anionic dextrans (MW=10 kDa), coupled to fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC -dextran), at either 37 oC or 4 oC. There was a rapid increase in AM associated-fluorescence, quantified by laser flow-cytometry and video microscopy during the first hour of incubation at 37 oC, that was directly proportional to the amount of tracer present in the medium. In contrast, at 4 oC, AM fluorescence was similar to autofluorescence. Incubation of AM with forskolin (50 [mu]M) or IBMX (0.1 mM) increased their cAMP content by 67 +/- 2 % and 52 +/- 5 % (mean +/- SEM; n=4) and decreased FITC-dextran uptake by 29 +/- 4 % and 31 +/- 4 % (mean +/- 1 SEM, n=3). On the other hand, incubation of AM with 0.5 mM IBMX, inhibited FITC-dextran uptake by 62 +/- 4% (mean +/- 1 SEM, n=3), without any further increase in cAMP. Incubation of AM with 0.4 mM CPT-cAMP, a cell-permeable analogue of cAMP, decreased FITC-dextran uptake 48 +/- 5 % (mean +/- 1 SEM, n=6). Pulse chase experiments showed that the rate of FITC-dextran exocytosis was not affected by cAMP. We concluded that fluid-phase endocytosis in rabbit AM is regulated by cAMP and by an additional, cAMP-independent mechanism of IBMX.

Received 13 April 1994; accepted in final form 31 May 1995.
APS Manuscript Number L110-4.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Lung Cell. Mol.
Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on  6 July 1995.