Modulation of cftr chloride channels by calyculin a and genistein. Yang, Iris C-H., Tzu-Hurng Cheng, Fei Wang, Elmer M. Price, and Tzyh -Chang Hwang. Departments of Physiology and Veterinary Biomedical Sciences#, Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center, University of Missouri -Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211; Department of Pharmacology, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
APStracts 3:0266C, 1996.
Regulation mechanisms of the CFTR Cl- channel were studied in Hi-5 insect cells infected with baculovirus containing the wild-type CFTR. No CFTR-like Cl- channels were present in noninfected cells. In more than 90% of infected cells that show CFTR activity, channel currents were not observed until stimulated by forskolin presumably because of a low level of basal CFTR phosphorylation in these cells. CFTR channels expressed in insect cells show similar biophysical properties as native channels. These include 11 pS single-channel conductance and ATP-dependent gating. Calyculin A increased forskolin-induced CFTR activity by 17.2 fold suggesting that phosphatase 1 and/or 2A is involved in dephosphorylation of the CFTR. Partial activity of CFTR channels was observed after forskolin was withdrawn in the continuous presence of calyculin A. Genistein enhanced forskolin-induced CFTR activity by 44.9 fold, but could neither activate the CFTR by itself nor prevent complete deactivation upon removal of forskolin. Noise analysis of the macroscopic CFTR currents revealed significant differences in the mean current/variance relationship and the corner frequency (fc) of the noise spectra between currents activated by forskolin plus genistein and those activated by forskolin plus calyculin A. Furthermore, genistein enhanced CFTR activity induced by saturating concentrations of forskolin and calyculin A; similarly, calyculin A further increased CFTR activity induced by saturating concentrations of forskolin and genistein. Genistein together with calyculin A could adequately prevent deactivation of CFTR channels. Potentiation of forskolin-induced CFTR activity by genistein was also observed in NIH3T3 cells stably expressing the wild-type CFTR. Our results suggest that genistein and calyculin A modulate the CFTR by different mechanisms, and that genistein might inhibit calyculin A-insensitive dephosphorylation of the CFTR.

Received 17 May 1996; accepted in final form 23 July 1996.
APS Manuscript Number C270-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Cell Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 21 August 1996