Homma, Sumiko

Adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP)-dependent protein phosphorylation is considered a key step in the cellular action of vasopressin (AVP) to regulate water permeability in collecting tubules. However, the proteins serving as a substrate(s) for phosphorylation in undisrupted cells have not yet been identified. In the present study, we developed a method for investigation of in situ phosphorylation of microdissected segments of medullary collecting tubules (MCT) from rat kidney. Incubation of microdissected MCT segments with low concentrations of saponin, “semipermeabilization,” increased permeability of the membrane for ATP but did not allow leakage of macromolecules such as lactate dehydrogenase. This treatment also did not cause major disruption of cell structure, or impairment of AVP-sensitive adenylate cyclase. Incubation of semipermeabilized MCT with gamma-[32P]ATP resulted in incorporation of 32Pi into two major protein bands [band “ A ” of apparent molecular mass (Mr) approximately equal to 66 kDa, and band “B” of Mr approximately equal to 45 kDa] detected by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and subsequent autoradiography. Similar incubation of tubules disrupted by hyposmotic solutions and a stronger detergent Triton X-100 resulted in 32Pi incorporation into multiple protein bands. Incubation of MCT with 1 microM AVP resulted in increased 32Pi radioactivity in band A and decreased 32Pi radioactivity in band B. These findings demonstrate a novel method for identification of endogenous protein substrate(s) for cAMP-dependent protein kinase and other protein kinases and phosphatases that are probably involved in post-cAMP steps in the cellular action of AVP in the intact cells of collecting tubules.

Little is known of the regulatory steps in the cellular action of vasopressin (AVP) on the renal epithelium, subsequent to the cAMP generation. We studied cAMP-binding proteins in the medullary collecting tubule (MCT) and the thick ascending limb of Henle's loop (MTAL) microdissected from the rat kidney by use of photoaffinity labeling. Microdissected tubules were homogenized and photoaffinity labeled by incubation with 1 microM 32P-labeled 8-azido-adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (N3-8-[32P]-cAMP); the incorporated 32P was analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and autoradiography. Both in MCT and MTAL preparations, the analyses showed incorporation of N3-8-[32P]cAMP into two bands (Mr = 49,000 and Mr = 55,000) that comigrated with standards of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase regulatory subunits RI and RII. In MCT, most of the 32P (80%) was incorporated into RI, whereas in MTAL the 32P incorporated into RI and RII was equivalent. When freshly dissected MCT segments were incubated with 10(-12)-10(-6) M AVP, the subsequent photoaffinity labeling of RI with N3-8-[32P]cAMP was markedly diminished in a dose-dependent manner compared with controls. Our results suggest that cAMP binds in MCT and MTAL to regulatory subunits RI and RII of cAMP-dependent protein kinase. However, in MCT the dominant type of cAMP-dependent protein kinase appears to be type I. The outlined procedure is suitable to indirectly measure the occupancy of RI by endogenous cAMP generated in MCT cells in response to physiological levels (10(-12) M) of AVP.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

To test the hypothesis that rapid adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) catabolism via cyclic 3',5'-nucleotide phosphodiesterase (PDE) is a cause of the unresponsiveness to vasopressin (VP) in mice with hereditary nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI), we investigated properties of PDEs and other aspects of the VP-dependent cAMP-signaling system in segments of collecting ducts [inner medullary (IMCD), cortical (CCD), and outer medullary (OMCD) ducts] microdissected from control mice and mice with NDI. The activity of cAMP-PDE, but not of cGMP-PDE, was markedly higher in IMCD (+109%), and to a lesser degree in OMCD (+41%) and CCD (+27%), of NDI mice than in normal controls. The cAMP-PDE in IMCD of NDI mice was more sensitive to inhibition by the PDE isozyme-specific inhibitors rolipram and cilostamide, but not by 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine, than was the cAMP-PDE in controls. Levels of cAMP in intact IMCD and CCD from NDI mice completely failed to increase in response to 10(-6) M VP. Incubation with rolipram alone, but not with cilostamide alone, restored VP-dependent cAMP accumulation in IMCD of NDI mice to the levels found in control mice; addition of cilostamide further enhanced the effect of rolipram. Analogous (but quantitatively lesser) anomalies of the VP-dependent cAMP system, including the effects of PDE inhibitors, were observed also in CCD of NDI mice. However, the activity of VP-stimulated adenylate cyclase assayed in permeabilized IMCD did not differ in NDI and control mice. These results indicate that anomalously high activities of low-Km cAMP-PDE isozymes account for the failure of collecting ducts of NDI mice to increase cAMP levels in response in VP.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

We examined whether phosphonoformate (PFA) can cause phosphaturia through its direct action on brush-border membrane (BBM) in vivo. Infusion of PFA or of parathyroid hormone (PTH) to thyroparathyroidectomized rats caused a marked increase in fractional excretion of phosphate without changes in excretion of Na+ or of GFR. The PFA-induced phosphaturia was not accompanied by an increase in urinary adenosine-3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP); moreover, PFA added in vitro did not influence the PTH-sensitive adenylate cyclase and cAMP-phosphodiesterase in proximal convoluted tubules. In BBM vesicles (BBMV) from rats with PFA-elicited phosphaturia, neither the rate of Na+-Pi symport nor Na+-dependent binding of [14C]PFA on BBMV was changed, whereas in BBMV from PTH-infused rats the Vmax of Na+-Pi symport decreased. PFA is almost completely ultrafiltrable; no metabolic transformation of PFA was detected after [14C]PFA exposure to rat renal cortical slices, homogenate, or to blood. We conclude that PFA causes phosphaturia by direct inhibition of Na+-Pi symport across BBM in proximal tubules, acting from the luminal side. Thus PFA (foscarnet) has a unique direct mechanism of phosphaturic effect, via its action on Pi reabsorption in proximal tubules in vivo.