Gu, Rui-Min, Yuan Wei, John R. Falck, U. Murali Krishna, and Wen-Hui Wang. Effects of protein tyrosine kinase and protein tyrosine phosphatase on apical K1 channels in the TAL. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 281: C1188-C1195, 2001.-We have previously demonstrated that the protein level of c-Src, a nonreceptor type of protein tyrosine kinase (PTK), was higher in the renal medulla from rats on a K-deficient (KD) diet than that in rats on a high-K (HK) diet (Wang WH, Lerea KM, Chan M, and Giebisch G. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 278: F165–F171, 2000). We have now used the patch-clamp technique to investigate the role of PTK in regulating the apical K channels in the medullary thick ascending limb (mTAL) of the rat kidney. Inhibition of PTK with herbimycin A increased NPo, a product of channel number (N) and open probability (Po), of the 70-pS K channel from 0.12 to 0.42 in the mTAL only from rats on a KD diet but had no significant effect in tubules from animals on a HK diet. In contrast, herbimycin A did not affect the activity of the 30-pS K channel in the mTAL from rats on a KD diet. Moreover, addition of N-methylsulfonyl-12,12-dibromododec-11-enamide, an agent that inhibits the cytochrome P-450-dependent production of 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid, further increased NPo of the 70-pS K channel in the presence of herbimycin A. Furthermore, Western blot detected the presence of PTP-1D, a membrane-associated protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP), in the renal outer medulla. Inhibition of PTP with phenylarsine oxide (PAO) decreased NPo of the 70-pS K channel in the mTAL from rats on a HK diet. However, PAO did not inhibit the activity of the 30-pS K channel in the mTAL. The effect of PAO on the 70-pS K channel was due to indirectly stimulating PTK because pretreatment of the mTAL with herbimycin A abolished the inhibitory effect of PAO. Finally, addition of exogenous c-Src reversibly blocked the activity of the 70-pS K channel in inside-out patches. We conclude that PTK and PTP have no effect on the low-conductance K channels in the mTAL and that PTK-induced tyrosine phosphorylation inhibits, whereas PTP-induced tyrosine dephosphorylation stimulates, the apical 70-pS K channel in the mTAL.

We have used the two-electrode voltage clamp technique and the patch clamp technique to investigate the regulation of ROMK1 channels by protein-tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) and protein-tyrosine kinase (PTK) in oocytes coexpressing ROMK1 and cSrc. Western blot analysis detected the presence of the endogenous PTP-1D isoform in the oocytes. Addition of phenylarsine oxide (PAO), an inhibitor of PTP, reversibly reduced K1 current by 55% in oocytes coinjected with ROMK1 and cSrc. In contrast, PAO had no significant effect on K1 current in oocytes injected with ROMK1 alone. Moreover, application of herbimycin A, an inhibitor of PTK, increased K1 current by 120% and completely abolished the effect of PAO in oocytes coexpressing ROMK1 and cSrc. The effects of herbimycin A and PAO were absent in oocytes expressing the ROMK1 mutant R1Y337A in which the tyrosine residue at position 337 was mutated to alanine. However, addition of exogenous cSrc had no significant effect on the activity of ROMK1 channels in inside-out patches. Moreover, the effect of PAO was completely abolished by treatment of oocytes with 20% sucrose and 250 mg/ml concanavalin A, agents that inhibit the endocytosis of ROMK1 channels. Furthermore, the effect of herbimycin A is absent in the oocytes pretreated with either colchicine, an inhibitor of microtubules, or taxol, an agent that freezes microtubules. We conclude that PTP and PTK play an important role in regulating ROMK1 channels. Inhibiting PTP increases the internalization of ROMK1 channels, whereas blocking PTK stimulates the insertion of ROMK1 channels.

Gu, Ruimin, Yuan Wei, Houli Jiang, Michael Balazy, and Wenhui Wang. Role of 20-HETE in mediating the effect of dietary K intake on the apical K channels in the mTAL. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 280: F223–F230, 2001.-We have used the patch-clamp technique to study the effect of dietary K intake on the apical K channels in the medullary thick ascending limb (mTAL) of rat kidneys. The channel activity, defined by the number of channels in a patch and the open probability (NPo), of the 30- and 70-pS K channels, was 0.18 and 0.11, respectively, in the mTAL from rats on a K-deficient diet. In contrast, NPo of the 30- and 70-pS K channels increased to 0.60 and 0.80, respectively, in the tubules from animals on a high-K diet. The concentration of 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (20-HETE) measured with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was 0.8 pg/mg protein in the mTAL from rats on a high-K diet and increased significantly to 4.6 pg/mg protein in the tubules from rats on a K-deficient diet. Addition of N-methylsulfonyl-12,12-dibromododec-11-enamide (DDMS) or 17-octadecynoic acid (17-ODYA), agents that inhibit the formation of 20-HETE, had no significant effect on the activity of the 30-pS K channels. However, DDMS/17-ODYA significantly increased the activity of the apical 70-pS K channel from 0.11 to 0.91 in the mTAL from rats on a K-deficient diet. In contrast, inhibition of the cytochrome P-450 metabolism of arachidonic acid increased NPo from 0.64 to 0.81 in the tubules from animals on a high-K diet. Furthermore, the sensitivity of the 70-pS K channel to 20-HETE was the same between rats on a high-K diet and on a K-deficient diet. Finally, the pretreatment of the tubules with DDMS increased NPo of the 70-pS K channels in the mTAL from rats on a K-deficient diet to 0.76. We conclude that an increase in 20-HETE production is involved in reducing the activity of the apical 70-pS K channels in the mTAL from rats on a K-deficient diet.

We have previously shown that inhibiting proteintyrosine kinase increased whereas inhibiting proteintyrosine phosphatase (PTP) decreased renal outer medullary potassium channel 1 (ROMK1) channel activity (1). We have now used confocal microscopy, the patch clamp technique, and biotin labeling to further examine the role of tyrosine phosphorylation in regulating ROMK1 trafficking. Human embryonic kidney 293 cells were cotransfected with c-Src and green fluorescent protein-ROMK1, which has the same biophysical properties as those of ROMK1. Patch clamp studies have shown that phenylarsine oxide (PAO), an inhibitor of PTP, decreased the activity of ROMK1. Moreover, addition of PAO reduced the cell surface localization of green fluorescent protein-ROMK1 detected by confocal microscopy and diminished the surface ROMK1 density by 65% measured by biotin labeling. Also, PAO treatment significantly increased the phosphorylation of ROMK1. The notion that the effect of PAO is mediated by stimulating tyrosine phosphorylationinduced endocytosis of ROMK1 has also been supported by findings that mutating the tyrosine residue 337 of ROMK1 to alanine abolished the effect of PAO. Finally, the inhibitory effect of PAO on ROMK1 was completely blocked in the cells co-transfected with dominant negative dynamin (dynaminK44A). This indicates that the tyrosine phosphorylation-induced endocytosis of ROMK1 is dynamin-dependent. We conclude that inhibiting PTP increasesROMK1phosphorylationandresults inadynamindependent internalization of the channel.

Gu, Rui-Min, and Wen-Hui Wang. Arachidonic acid inhibits K channels in basolateral membrane of the thick ascending limb. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 283: F407–F414, 2002. First published March 12, 2002; 10.1152/ajprenal. 00002.2002.-We have used the patch-clamp technique to study the effect of arachidonic acid (AA) on the basolateral K channels in the medullary thick ascending limb (mTAL) of rat kidney. An inwardly rectifying 50-pS K channel was identified in cell-attached and inside-out patches in the basolateral membrane of the mTAL. The channel open probability (Po) was 0.51 at the spontaneous cell membrane potential and decreased to 0.25 by 30mV hyperpolarization. The addition of 5M AA decreased channel activity, identified as NPo, from 0.58 to 0.08 in cell-attached patches. The effect of AA on the 50-pS K channel was specific because 10M cis-11,14,17-eicosatrienoic acid had no significant effect on channel activity. To determine whether the effect of AA was mediated by AA per se or by its metabolites, we examined the effect of AA on channel activity in the presence of indomethacin, an inhibitor of cyclooxygenase, or N-methylsulfonyl-12,12-dibromododec-11-enamide (DDMS), an inhibitor of cytochrome P-450 monooxygenase. Inhibition of cyclooxygenase increased channel activity from 0.54 to 0.9. However, indomethacin did not abolish the inhibitory effect of AA on the 50-pS K channel. In contrast, inhibition of cytochrome P-450 metabolism not only increased channel activity from 0.49 to 0.83 but also completely abolished the effect of AA. Moreover, addition of DDMS can reverse the inhibitory effect of AA on channel activity. The notion that the effect of AA was mediated by cytochrome P-450-dependent metabolites of AA is also supported by the observation that addition of 100 nM of 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid, a main metabolite of AA in the mTAL, can mimic the effect of AA. We conclude that AA inhibits the 50-pS K channel in the basolateral membrane of the mTAL and that the effect of AA is mainly mediated by cytochrome P-450-dependent metabolites of AA.