Immunoglobulin light chain alters mesangial cell calcium homeostasis. Zhu, Ling, Guillermo A. Herrera, C. Roger White, Paul W. Sanders. Departments of Pathology, Medicine and Physiology, Nephrology Research and Training Center, Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Cell Adhesion and Matrix Research Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL, and Department of Pathology, Louisiana State University Medical Center, Shreveport, LA
APStracts 3:0214F, 1996.
This study examined the hypothesis that certain immunoglobulin light chains directly altered mesangial cell calcium homeostasis. Intracellular [Ca2&] signaling was determined in suspensions of rat mesangial cells using Fura-2AM with a calcium removal/addback protocol. Pre-treatment of cultured rat mesangial cells with a glomerulopathic k light chain (gle) produced reversible dose- and time-dependent attenuation of ATP- and thrombin-evoked [Ca2&] transients (189+/-24 nM vs 126+/-10 nM, p<0.05 with ATP; 198+/-5 nM vs 117+/-3 nM, p<0.05 with thrombin) and capacitative calcium influx (199+/-14 nM vs 142+/-17 nM, p<0.05 for ATP; 252+/-19 nM vs 198+/-18 nM, p<0.05 for thrombin). Mesangial cells treated with gle and supplemented with myo-inositol (450 [mu]M) did not demonstrate the attenuation of the ATP-evoked [Ca2&] transient and capacitative calcium influx. Gle also decreased mean [Ca2&] transient (80+/-7 nM vs 56+/-1 nM, p<0.05) and capacitative calcium influx (306+/-10 nM vs 241+/-4 nM, p<0.05) in response to thapsigargin, a Ca2& ATPase inhibitor. This inhibition was not reversed by exogenous myo-inositol. Another k light chain (10 [mu]g/ml) did not affect mesangial cell calcium signaling. Deranged mesangial cell calcium homeostasis by certain light chains may play a central pathogenetic role in glomerulosclerosis associated with deposition of immunoglobulin light chains.

Received 8 May 1996; accepted in final form 12 November 1996.
APS Manuscript Number F139-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Renal Fluid Electrolyte
Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 31 December 1996