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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 281, Issue 16, 11260-11270, April 21, 2006
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1
From the
Department of Pharmacology, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, the
Department of Cell Biology, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut 06030, the ¶Departments of Pediatrics and Pharmacology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, and the ||Department of Biochemistry, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854
Received for publication, December 2, 2005 , and in revised form, January 23, 2006.
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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-kinase family (9, 10). Annexin I has been identified as a substrate for the kinase, but the functional significance of annexin I phosphorylation by TRPM7 is not yet understood (11). Autophosphorylation of the channel does not alter channel activity (12). However, phospholipase C inactivates TRPM7 channel activity through hydrolysis of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate, which is presumably gating the channel (13, 14). Magnesium ions block channel activity (8, 15-17), and, more recently, TRPM7 current has been shown to be potentiated by protons (18). Despite these recent advances in understanding TRPM7 channel regulation, the physiological role of this unique bifunctional protein still remains unclear. The passage of Mg2+ by TRPM7 has linked it to the regulation of magnesium homeostasis in mammalian cells (19). Its capacity to carry calcium, in contrast, has been associated with calcium overload during anoxic cell death (20), calcium-dependent regulation of the cell cycle (21), and most recently, skeletogenesis and kidney stone formation in zebrafish (22). An early study by Nadler et al. (8) showed that overexpression of TRPM7 caused HEK-293 cells to detach and die, suggesting that the channel may have a role in controlling cell adhesion.
Here we present evidence that TRPM7 is a potent regulator of m-calpain. Fourteen distinct members of the mammalian calpain family have been identified, but only two are well characterized: µ-calpain, which is activated by µM calcium concentrations (in vitro), and m-calpain, which is activated by millimolar concentrations of Ca2+ (in vitro) (23). Both isoforms are thought to play significant roles in the regulation of cell adhesion (23-26). µ-Calpain is involved in the activation of Rac during focal complex formation during cell spreading (27, 28), whereas m-calpain has been implicated in adhesion complex disassembly and deadhesion (29-31). We found that expression of TRPM7 in HEK-293 cells produced cell rounding and a loss of cell adhesion that was dependent upon m-calpain. TRPM7-dependent cell rounding occurred without significantly elevating cytosolic calcium concentrations, suggesting that calcium influx through the channel was creating local calcium gradients to activate the protease. Indeed, TRPM7 colocalized with m-calpain at peripheral vinculin-containing adhesion complexes, where presumably, as one of its physiological roles, TRPM7 controls the activity of m-calpain to regulate cell adhesion. Recently, the bifunctional channel has been shown to play a key role in anoxic cell death. The control of m-calpain by TRPM7 may also contribute to some of the cellular events that occur during ischemia, as well as to other pathologies associated with the calcium-dependent protease (32, 33).
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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TRPM7-expressing Cell LinesTRPM7, kinase mutants, and small hairpin RNA-expressing cell lines were made using the Flp-In system (Invitrogen) and the commercially available Flp-In T-Rex 293 cells following the manufacturer's instructions. The Flp-In T-Rex 293 cell line expresses the tetracycline repressor protein (TetR), which in the absence of tetracycline blocks transcription from the cytomegalovirus promoter containing control elements from the bacterial tetracycline resistance operon. The Flp-In T-Rex 293 cell line contains a single, stably integrated FRT site at a transcriptionally active genomic locus, so that target integration of a Flp-In expression vector ensures reproducible isogenic high level gene expression.
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KIN, GFP-KIN, or GFP-CTKIN was cotransfected into the parental cell line with the pOG44 plasmid that expresses Flp recombinase. The respective coding sequences were then integrated into the genome via Flp recombinase-mediated DNA recombination at the specific genomic location. To test the function of the kinase domain, we created cell lines expressing a version of TRPM7 in which the catalytic kinase domain has been removed (293-TRPM7
KIN) or one in which the kinase domain has been rendered catalytically inactive (293-TRPM7-K1645A, 293-TRPM7-G1618D). The truncation of the kinase domain was made by changing the TCG codon encoding serine 1501 into a stop codon. The K1645A substitution renders the kinase inactive by mutating a critical invariant lysine to alanine. The G1618D mutation disrupts kinase activity by blocking ATP binding to the P-loop in the catalytic domain. Control experiments have shown that a GST fusion of the kinase domain harboring either the K1645A or G1618D substitutions was soluble but lacked catalytic activity (data not shown). TRPM7-K1645A, TRPM7-G1618D, and TRPM
KIN were generated using QuikChange (Stratagene) with the following primers: TRPM7-K1645A, 5'-CCT GAA GTC AGG GCA TCT CTA TAT CAT TGC GTC ATT TCT TCC TGA GGT G-3' and 5'-CAC CTC AGG AAG AAA TGA CGC AAT GAT ATA GAG ATG CCC TGA CTT CAG G-3'; TRPM7-G1618D, 5'-GTA AAG AGG AAA TGG GAG ATG GTT TAC GAA GAG CAG-3' and 5'-CTG CTC TTC GTA AAC CAT CTC CCA TTT CCT CTT TAC-3'; and TRPM7
KIN, 5'-CTG TAG TAG AAG AGC GTA GAC GGA AGA CTCT CCA G-3' and 5'-CTG GAG AGT CTT CCG TCT ACG CTC TTC TAC TAC AG-3'.
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KIN-expressing cells and then evaluated their ability to attenuate TRPM7 expression (supplemental Fig. S1). Four of the best constructs were then used to make TRPM7-shRNA-expressing cell lines. First, pcDNA5/FRT/TO/GATEWAY was created using the Gateway Vector Conversion System (Invitrogen) by blunt end ligation of the Gateway cassette into the NruI and EcoRV sites of pcDNA5/FRT/TO (which removed the cytomegalovirus promotor). A Gateway LR recombination reaction (Invitrogen) was then performed to introduce the shRNA expression cassette into pcDNA5/FRT/TO/GATEWAY. The final GATEWAY vectors expressing shRNAs against TRPM7 (pcDNA5/FRT/TO/GATEWAY-M7shRNA-2, M7shRNA-3, M7shRNA-5, and M7shRNA-6) were used to generate stable cell lines employing the Flp-In system (Invitrogen). A nonsilencing sequence (5'-AAT TCT CCG AAC GTG TCA CGT-3') was used to make the control cell line 293-shRNA-C (20). Anti-TRPM7 AntibodiesThe TRPM7-specific PLIKC47 antibody (
-C47), which recognizes residues 1816-1863 from rat TRPM7, has been previously described (14). A second rabbit polyclonal TRPM7 (
-CTERM) was generated using a GST fusion protein with residues 1384-1506 of murine TRPM7 as the antigen. The
-CTERM antibody was purified following protocols that have been described (14). Both
-C47 and
-CTERM are specific and suitable for immunocytochemistry, Western blotting, and immunoprecipitation experiments (supplemental Fig. S2). Western Blotting and Immunoprecipitation Experiments293-TRPM7 cells expressing recombinant HA-tagged TRPM7 or channel and kinase variants were lysed after a 24-h treatment with tetracycline using 2 ml of ice-cold radioimmune precipitation assay buffer (50 mM Tris, pH 7.4, 150 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 1% Igepal CA-630, 0.5% (w/v) deoxycholate, 0.1% (w/v) SDS, and 10 mM iodoacetamide). The proteins were immunoprecipitated overnight from cell lysates from a 60-mm dish with an anti-HA affinity matrix. In the case of GFP-KIN and GFP-CTKIN, expressed proteins were immunoprecipitated using a monoclonal anti-GFP antibody (Roche Applied Science) bound to protein G-agarose. The samples were washed three times in TBST (50 mM Tris-Cl, pH 7.6, 150 mM NaCl, 0.05% Tween 20), eluted by boiling in 2x SDS-PAGE sample buffer, and then resolved by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting following standard protocols. The monoclonal 12CA5 anti-HA antibody or the monoclonal 7.1 and 13.1 anti-GFP antibodies were used as the primary antibodies (Roche Applied Science). The SuperSignal West Dura maximum sensitive substrate (Pierce) was used for immunochemiluminescence detection.
To detect native TRPM7 in the HEK-293 line, cells were lysed from a 10-cm dish using 2 ml of ice-cold radioimmune precipitation assay buffer. TRPM7 was immunoprecipitated overnight from cell lysates using 10 µg of
-C47 antibody absorbed to protein A-agarose (Santa Cruz Biotechnology). The samples were washed three times in TBST buffer, eluted in 2x SDS-PAGE sample buffer, and then resolved by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting using the second anti-TRPM7 antibody (
-CTERM). The SuperSignal West Dura maximum sensitive substrate (Pierce) was used for immunochemiluminescence detection.
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Immunokinase AssayThe immunokinase assay was performed as follows. Briefly, 10-cm dishes of cells were grown to confluence and allowed to express the individual proteins by the addition of tetracycline (1 µg/ml) to the medium. After 24 h, the cells were lysed in radioimmune precipitation assay buffer, and the specific proteins were immunoprecipitated as described above. The immunocaptured proteins were washed four times with ice-cold phosphate-buffered saline containing 0.1% polyoxyethylenesorbitan monolaurate (Tween 20). The wash buffer was replaced by ice-cold reaction buffer (KIN-DET) containing 50 mM HEPES (pH 7.0), 50 mM NaCl, 5 mM MgCl2, 3.5 mM MnCl2, 0.1% Tween 20, 0.5 mM ATP, and 2 µCi of [
-32P]ATP (specific activity of 3000 Ci/mmol). The samples were then incubated at 37 °C for 30 min in a 50-µl reaction, before being terminated by the addition of 10 µl of 6x SDS sample buffer. The samples were then resolved on a 6% SDS-PAGE gel. The gels were dried, and
-32P incorporation was visualized by autoradiography.
Immunofluorescence and Confocal Microscopy293-TRPM7 cells were plated onto polylysine coated coverslips and treated with tetracycline for 20 h to analyze the cellular distribution of HA-tagged TRPM7. The cells were fixed at room temperature for 10 min in phosphate-buffered saline (pH 7.4) with 4% paraformaldehyde (Electron Microscopy Sciences) and permeabilized in phosphate-buffered saline with 0.1% Saponin (Sigma). Primary antibodies against TRPM7 (described above) or the monoclonal 12CA5 anti-HA (Roche Applied Science) were used to visualize TRPM7 by immunofluorescence. A monoclonal antibody against vinculin (HVIN-1 clone; Sigma) was used to image peripheral adhesion complexes. A rabbit polyclonal antibody against m-calpain (Triple Point Biologics, Inc.) was used to visualize the cellular distribution of the protease. A 1:2000 dilution of Alexa Fluor 488 or Alexa Fluor 568 goat antibody to rabbit or mouse (Molecular Probes) was used as the secondary antibody. The images were obtained from a Zeiss LSM 410 confocal microscope using a 488-nm excitation wavelength and a 512-nm band pass emission filter. The pinhole size used was 30 Airy Units, and the contrast/brightness settings were kept the same for each image.
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Calcium imaging was conducted using an IonOptix ratio calcium imaging system. In brief, the cells were plated on 25-mm glass coverslips and incubated with Fura 2/acetoxymethyl (5 µM) for 50 min. After the extracellular Fura 2/acetoxymethyl was washed away, the cells were incubated for an additional 30 min. Fluorescence intensity at 510 nm with 340- and 380-nm excitation was collected at a rate of 1 Hz using a intensified CCD camera (Ionoptix), and the data were analyzed using Ionwizard (Ionoptix). 1 µM ionomycin was applied to each cell and was used as a reference to normalize the changes in the F340/F380 ratio. For Ca2+ imaging the extracellular Tyrode's solution contained 140 mM NaCl, 5 mM KCl, 2 mM CaCl2, 1 mM MgCl2, 20 mM HEPES, and 10 mM glucose, pH adjusted to 7.4 (NaOH).
Cell Rounding AssayChanges in 293 cell morphology were scored manually employing the following criteria. The cells that had a fully round cell body with no membrane extension processes were given 1 point. Partially rounded cells with one or two membrane extensions were assigned half a point. Nonrounded cells having three or four membrane extension processes, with a cell morphology similar to wild type HEK-293 cells, were given 0 points.
Adhesion AssayCell adhesion was measured using a trypsinization assay (36). Briefly,
2.5x106 cells were plated onto a 60-mm Falcon tissue culture dish for 24 h and then treated with 0.5 ml of 0.05% trypsin-EDTA for 4 min to stimulate cell detachment. Detached cells in the trypsin-EDTA solution were collected, and the trypsinization was terminated by the addition of 3 ml of culture medium. The number of detached cells was then manually counted using a hemocytometer and expressed as a percentage of the total number of cells on the plate.
Rho Activity AssayDetection of activated Rho was accomplished using a modified GST pull-down purification assay. To detect activated Rho, the pull-down was performed using GST fused to the Rhotekin Rho-binding domain (37). The assay was performed by incubating cell lysates with partially purified GST fused to the Rhotekin Rho-binding domain bound to glutathione beads for 1 h (Amersham Biosciences), washing the beads, and then resolving bound Rho by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting as described (38). The cells transfected with ephexin, a Rho-GEF, were used as a positive control. The ephexin expression vector was a gift of Michael Greenberg (Division of Neuroscience, Children's Hospital, Boston, MA).
Calpain 2 shRNA Blockade in LTRPC7 CellsRNA interference of m-calpain (calpain 2) expression was achieved by expression of a shRNA in the pSUPERretro vector specific to human m-calpain. To make the pSUPERretro-CAPN2 vector, the following oligonucleotides were cloned into the BglII-HindIII sites of pSUPERretro (sense, 5'-GAT CCC CGG CAT ACG CCA AGA TCA ACT TCA AGA GAG TTG ATC TTG GCG TAT GCC TTT TTG GAA A-3'; antisense, 5'-AGC TTT TCC AAA AAG GCA TAC GCC AAG ATC AAC TCT CTT GAA GTT GAT CTT GGC GTA TGC CGG G-3'), in which the m-calpain target sequence is 5'-AAG GCA UAC GCC AAG AUC AAC-3'. pSUPERretro-CAPN2 was transiently transfected using Lipofectamine 2000 (Invitrogen) into LTRPC7 cells (generously provided by Dr. Andrew Scharenberg, University of Washington) (8). Cells expressing the shRNA targeting m-calpain were selected using 5 µg/ml puromycin for 3 days prior to expression of TRPM7 by the addition of tetracycline (1 µg/ml) to the media. Control experiments showed that nontransfected cells treated with puromycin died within 3 days. Silencing of m-calpain was assessed by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting of cell lysates, using a rabbit polyclonal antibody against m-calpain (Triple Point Biologics, Inc.). A monoclonal antibody against µ-calpain (Alexis Biochemicals) was used to show that pSUPERretro-CAPN2 did not affect µ-calpain protein levels.
| RESULTS |
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25%) (data not shown). In addition, the effect of TRPM7 on cell morphology and adhesion is specific. Expression of TRPM1, TRPC5, lymphocyte
-kinase, and TRPM6 (a second TRPM family member with a kinase domain) in HEK-293 cells failed to produce the morphological changes that were visible when TRPM7 was expressed (data not shown). This finding is consistent with a recent report showing that TRPM6 and TRPM7 are functionally nonredundant (39).
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50% longer, which is the converse of the morphology of HEK-293 cells overexpressing the channel (Fig. 1A). A wound healing assay was performed to assess how silencing the channel kinase affects cell migration.
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56% more efficiently than control cells. These results strongly indicate that TRPM7 regulates the adhesion and migration of HEK-293 cells.
TRPM7 Channel Activity Is Required for Changes in Cell AdhesionTo investigate the role of the channel and kinase activities of TRPM7 in regulating cell adhesion, we applied the Flp-In system to create 293-TRPM7-G1618D and 293-TRPM7-K1645A cells, which expresses kinase-inactive mutants of TRPM7. We also constructed the 293-TRPM7
KIN cell line, which expresses TRPM7 without its kinase domain, and the 293-KIN and 293-CTKIN lines that express GFP fusion proteins of the kinase domain (293-KIN; amino acids 1532-1862) and the carboxyl terminus containing the kinase domain (293-CTKIN; amino acids 1120-1862). The K1645A substitution changes the invariant lysine that is required for catalytic activity in all protein kinases, whereas the G1618D substitution is predicted to disrupt kinase activity by blocking binding of ATP to the P-loop within the kinase domain. The advantage of the Flp-In system is that the parental Flp-In T-Rex 293 cell line has a unique FRT site integrated into its genome. This feature allows multiple cell lines to be constructed in which Flp recombinase-mediated DNA recombination of the introduced gene occurs at the same genomic location. Control in vitro kinase experiments revealed that a GST fusion of the kinase domain harboring either the K1645A or G1618D substitutions was soluble but lacked catalytic activity (data not shown). We also tested the ability of the immunoprecipitated TRPM7-K1645A, TRPM7-G1618D, TRPM7
KIN, TRPM7, GFP-KIN, and GFP-CTKIN to autophosphorylate in an immunokinase assay using [
-32P]ATP (Fig. 3B). As expected, TRPM7, GFP-KIN, and GFP-CTKIN retained the ability to autophosphorylate, whereas the kinase mutants TRPM7-K1645A, TRPM7-G1618D, and TRPM7
KIN did not. Immunoprecipitation of expressed proteins from cell lysates followed by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting showed that 293-TRPM7-K1645A and 293-TRPM7-G1618D cells expressed lower amounts of recombinant protein than 293-TRPM7 cells with proportionally smaller current amplitudes (Fig. 3, B and C). The current-voltage relationships observed in 293-TRPM7-K1645A and 293-TRPM7-G1618D cells were virtually identical to the wild type current from 293-TRPM7 cells (data not shown). By contrast, although the 293-TRPM7
KIN cell line expressed similar levels of protein to TRPM7 with a similar cellular distribution (supplemental Fig. S3), whole cell recordings revealed very little channel activity (Fig. 3C). These results are similar to those observed by Schmitz et al. (19), who suggested that some functional coupling between the channel and kinase domains of TRPM7 may exist. Surprisingly, we found that the kinase domain of TRPM7 was not required for cell rounding and loss of adhesion. Expression of TRPM7-G1618D, which retained significant channel activity, caused cell rounding, but cells expressing the fragments of TRPM7 with only the kinase domain (GFP-KIN, GFP-CTKIN) did not (Fig. 3D). We also found that cells expressing TRPM7 variants that produced diminished channel activity (TRPM
KIN, TRPM7-K1645A) were not as effective in producing cell rounding as wild type TRPM7 or TRPM7-G1618D (Fig. 3D). This result suggests that a threshold of channel activity must be overcome for TRPM7 to produce the observed changes in cell morphology and adhesion. To confirm that TRPM7 channel activity was required for cell rounding, we applied increasing concentrations of LaCl3 into the culture medium of tetracycline-treated cells. La3+ blocks TRPM7 inward current by 97% at 2 mM (1). As expected, supplementation of the medium with increasing concentrations of La3+ progressively inhibited the rounding and detachment of TRPM7-expressing cells, with full blockade observed at 2 mM (Fig. 4). We therefore conclude that TRPM7 channel activity is required for the above changes in cell adhesion.
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We tested whether overexpression of TRPM7 in the 293-TRPM7 cell line stimulates Rho using a Rho activity assay (37). For this procedure cell lysates from TRPM7-expressing and control cells were subjected to a pull-down purification assay using GST fused to the Rhotekin Rho-binding domain, which is a fusion protein of GST and the Rho-binding domain of Rhotekin that binds to active Rho-GTP. Although there was a slight increase in the amount of Rho-GTP captured from cell lysates from TRPM7-expressing cells compared with control cells (Fig. 5B), expression of dominant-negative isoforms of Rho (RhoT19N), Rac (RacT17N), and Cdc42 (Cdc42T17N) failed to prevent TRPM7-dependent cell rounding by expression of TRPM7 (data not shown). We therefore conclude that the change in cell morphology and the loss in adhesion that occurred in HEK-293 cells overexpressing TRPM7 were not dependent upon Rho, Rac, or Cdc42.
Because TRPM7 activity has been linked to cell death, we next investigated whether the rounding of HEK-293 cells might be caused through channel-mediated initiation of apoptosis and caspase 3 activation (8, 20). Activated caspase 3 cleaves ROCK I within the conserved DETD113/G sequence, removing its carboxyl-terminal inhibitor domain and producing a constitutively active form that causes cell rounding (44). Treatment of the 293-TRPM7 cells with the caspase 3 inhibitor Z-DEVD-FMK or the ROCK inhibitor Y27632 had little to no effect on TRPM7-dependent morphological changes, supporting our conclusion that expression of TRPM7 does not cause cell rounding by initiating apoptosis or by activating ROCK I (Fig. 5A).
Our investigation then focused on the role of calpain in mediating TRPM7-dependent changes in cell adhesion. Calpains are intracellular, nonlysosomal, Ca2+-dependent cysteine proteases that are active at physiological pH (45). Treatment of 293-TRPM7-expressing cells with the calpain inhibitor ALLM blocked TRPM7-dependent changes in morphology and deadhesion (Fig. 5A), a finding strongly suggesting that TRPM7 is activating calpain to produce these cellular effects.
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Overexpression of TRPM7 Does Not Cause Calcium OverloadThe half-maximal concentration range of calcium required for activation of m-calpain in vitro is 400-800 µM (45). Autolysis of m-calpain can reduce the half-maximal concentration range of calcium required for activity to 50-150 µM. However, because global increases in calcium to these concentrations are rarely observed in cells, there has been speculation that local transient increases of calcium mediated by calcium-permeant ion channels may be regulating calpain activation (23).
The inward current of TRPM7 is extremely small at the physiological membrane potentials observed in nonexcitable cells (-10 to -20 mV; see Fig. 2A) (7). For this reason it would be too difficult to measure fluxes of local calcium concentrations surrounding the channel. Instead, we asked whether overexpression of TRPM7 under conditions that normally elicit cell rounding and loss of adhesion raises cytosolic calcium levels above those observed in nonexpressing cells. As measured by the ratiometric indicator Fura-2 and fluorescence microscopy, when cells were constantly perfused with 2 mM Ca2+ Tyrode's solution, the calcium concentrations represented by the normalized ratio of F340/F380 in TRPM7-expressing cells did not significantly differ from nonexpressing cells (Fig. 6A), indicating that TRPM7 was not activating calpain by raising global cytosolic calcium concentrations.
TRPM7 Colocalizes with m-Calpain to Peripheral Vinculin-containing Adhesion ComplexesWe found that when TRPM7 was heterologously expressed at concentrations below the threshold required to cause cell rounding, the channel colocalized with m-calpain into clusters at the tips or ends of cellular protrusions emanating from the cell body of HEK-293 cells (Fig. 6B). Because many of the substrates of m-calpain are components of focal adhesions, we decided to investigate whether TRPM7 localized to these cellular structures as well. We found that TRPM7 colocalized with vinculin to the same peripheral adhesion complexes (Fig. 6B). Unfortunately, we were unable to acquire evidence that TRPM7 and calpain coassemble into a macromolecular complex, because m-calpain did not coimmunopurify with HA-TRPM7 from 293-TRPM7-expressing cell lysates (data not shown). Nevertheless, we cannot rule out that such a complex exists, because the interaction of TRPM7 with m-calpain may be weak, transient, or indirect.
Knockdown of TRPM7 Increases Peripheral Adhesion Complexes in CellsBecause 293-M7shRNA2 cells adhere more tightly to the substratum (Fig. 1B), we tested whether these cells produce more peripheral adhesions. As expected, overexpression of TRPM7 in 293-TRPM7 cells greatly reduced the number of these cellular structures as compared with nonexpressing cells. In contrast, 293-M7shRNA2 cells were more elongated and spread than wild type cells and had more peripheral adhesion complexes (Fig. 7). These data suggest that 293-M7shRNA2 cells adhere more strongly to the substratum because they have more adhesive contacts.
| DISCUSSION |
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Because expression of the channel did not raise cytosolic calcium concentrations to the levels required for activation of m-calpain (50-150 µM), TRPM7 must have activated the protease by another mechanism. We found that TRPM7 colocalized with m-calpain to vinculin-containing peripheral adhesion complexes. These data strongly suggest a model in which TRPM7 regulates calcium concentrations within peripheral adhesion complexes to activate m-calpain and initiate the disassembly or turnover of peripheral adhesion complexes (Fig. 8). The discovery that 293-TRPM7 cells overexpressing the channel are rounded and lack these cellular structures, whereas cells that have reduced levels of the native channel are more spread and have more abundant peripheral adhesion complexes, supports this premise.
The specific signaling pathway(s) that control the entry into and exit from these adhesion complexes by TRPM7 are still unknown. Additional research is required to understand how TRPM7-dependent regulation of m-calpain fits into the elaborate orchestration of proteins that regulate cell adhesion and locomotion. Nonetheless, calpain has been implicated in a number of migratory processes, including neurite outgrowth and growth cone motility (49-51), cell migration (23, 25, 52, 53), and cancer cell metastasis (24, 54-57). Calpain has also been associated with cell death during ischemia in various organs (35, 58-67). TRPM7 was originally shown to be activated by depletion of intracellular Mg·ATP levels, and the channel has been recently implicated in causing the death of cultured cortical neurons during anoxia (20). One cannot help but speculate whether anoxic-induced activation of TRPM7 causes the overstimulation of m-calpain that contributes to the demise of cells during anoxia. To better understand such cellular events, further investigation into how TRPM7-dependent regulation of m-calpain controls cell adhesion and migration in other cell types will be important to pursue.
| FOOTNOTES |
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The on-line version of this article (available at http://www.jbc.org) contains supplemental Figs. S1-S3.
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1 To whom correspondence should be addressed: Dept. of Pharmacology, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 675 Hoes Ln., Piscataway, NJ 08854. Tel.: 732-235-4593; Fax: 732-235-4073; E-mail: runnellw{at}umdnj.edu.
2 The abbreviations used are: ALLM, N-acetyl-leucyl-leucyl-methioninal; Z, benzyloxycarbonyl; FMK, fluoromethyl ketone; HA, hemagglutinin; GST, glutathione S-transferase; FRT, Flp recombination target. ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| REFERENCES |
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