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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 281, Issue 30, 20728-20737, July 28, 2006
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1
From the
Department of Molecular Biosciences, Kansas University, Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7534 and the
Department of Physical Sciences, Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Michigan 49307
Received for publication, December 7, 2005 , and in revised form, April 24, 2006.
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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1. The enzyme is a facilitator of cytoplasmic adenine nucleotide interchange. Plasma membrane-associated AK and certain other phosphate exchange enzymes and glycosidases, including ectonucleoside diphosphokinase and ectonucleotidases, catalyze the interconversion of purine nucleotides, nucleosides, and free purines that can serve as effector substances for P2Y-ligated purinergic pathways on plasma membranes of endothelial cells (11, 12, 16) as well as other types of cells, including dermal (5, 9, 16), neuronal (1721), etc.
To explore the source of extracellular AK in cultures of endothelial cells, a sensitive and versatile method for evaluating AK activity was devised. It is described and its suitability for this study confirmed at the beginning "Results." Its use in studies of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and a line of human embryonic lung fibroblasts (WI38) in culture suggests that enough AK does indeed leak from cells to account for the observed extracellular ATP formation from ADP.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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ReagentsAMP (acid form, type V), ADP (disodium salt, equine muscle), ATP (disodium salt, trihydrate), Glu-6-P, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD; EC 1.1.1.49
[EC]
; recombinant, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, expressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity), hexokinase (EC 2.7.1.1
[EC]
; Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a mixture of isozymes as a crystalline suspension in ammonium sulfate, type C-130), AK (rabbit or chicken muscle, essentially salt-free, lyophilized powder), Ap5A, Triton X-100, penicillin G, streptomycin sulfate, phenazine methosulfate, heparin (sodium salt, porcine intestinal mucosa), and phosphate determination reagent (Fiske-SubbaRow) were obtained from Sigma. Other materials were obtained as indicated:
-NADP (sodium salt), U. S. Biochemical Corp. (Cleveland, OH); Tris, Fisher; Bradford reagent, Bio-Rad; p-iodonitrotetrazolium violet (INT), Lancaster Synthesis (Windham, NH); crystalline porcine trypsin, Worthington; basal culture medium (50:50 Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium/Ham's F-12 medium), Invitrogen; rat tail collagen, BD Biosciences; FBS, Serologicals Corp. (Norcross, GA); Isoton, Coulter Electronics, Inc. (Hialeah, FL); and endothelial cell growth supplement (also called endothelial mitogen), Biomedical Technologies, Inc. (Stoughton, MA). Hanks' balanced salt solution (HBSS), Dulbecco's phosphate-buffered saline (DPBS), and DPBSA (DPBS lacking Mg2+ and Ca2+) were prepared according to Freshney (22).
Cell Culture ProtocolCells were grown to near confluence in the indicated medium in 100-mm tissue culture plates or T-75 tissue culture flasks, with nutrient replenishment 1 day prior to use. The culture vessels used for experiments were coated with type 1 rat tail collagen according to the manufacturer's instructions. The inoculum for an experiment was prepared by incubating the cell layer at 37 °C in trypsin/EDTA solution (0.01% crystalline porcine trypsin and 0.1% EDTA in DPBSA) until the cells had detached from the dish, terminating the tryptic action by adding a small volume of medium containing 5% FBS. The cell suspension was centrifuged briefly at low speed (300 rpm) in a clinical centrifuge, and the cells were suspended in the appropriate medium. The cell density was determined by electronic particle counting in Isoton on a CASY 1 Model TT counter and sizer (Schärfe System GmbH, Reutlingen, Germany). The cells were diluted in medium to the desired density, seeded in culture vessels, and incubated in a humidified CO2 incubator (5% CO2 and 95% air) at 37.5 °C.
Assay Mixture and ProtocolThe principles and protocol for preparing the secondary assay mixture (see Table 1) have been described by Haslam et al. (23, 24). The crystalline suspension of G6PD was diluted 1:8 in 60 mM Tris (pH 7.8), dispensed in small volumes in sealed vials, and stored at 20 °C. To test for AK activity, the cells were seeded in collagen-coated 6- or 12-well plates at densities needed to attain the desired confluence (usually total) during the growth period (14 days); 2.5 x 105 cells/well in a 6-well plate reached confluence overnight. The growth medium was then removed; the plates were washed as indicated; the primary assay mixture (see Table 1) was added; and the plates were incubated, usually for 30 min at 37 °C. The supernatant liquid was then transferred to a microcentrifuge tube containing 20 µl of 9.75 mM Ap5A, an inhibitor of AK activity (25), at 0 °C; centrifuged at 3000 x g for 1 min; and transferred to a clean tube on ice. The liquid was dispensed at 0.15 ml/well in a 96-well plate using a multichannel pipetter, and 0.05 ml of secondary assay mixture (see Table 1) was added, avoiding bubble formation. The plate contents were mixed for 30 s on a plate shaker or Vortex mixer (fast enough to stir the contents without causing spillage or foaming) and then incubated at 37 °C. At the specified times, the plates were again vortexed, and the A492 values were determined on a multiwell plate reader (AutoReader II, Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc., Raritan, NJ).
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F1-ATPase AssaySoluble mitochondrial F1-ATPase was prepared from beef heart according to the method of Knowles and Penefsky (26). The ATPase activity was determined according to Taussky and Shorr (27), measuring inorganic phosphate formed from ATP/mg of F1-ATPase protein, determined by the method of Bradford (28). To determine F1-ATPase activity and its inhibition by test substances, the enzyme solution (5 µg/ml) was incubated with Ap5A or a putative inhibitor for 5 min at 37 °C in 25 mM Tricine (pH 8.0). Then, 0.5 ml of the assay mixture (25 mM Tricine (pH 8.0), 25 µM NaSO3, 4 mM ATP, and 2 mM MgCl2) was added, and the mixture was incubated for 2 min. The reaction was stopped with 1 ml of 0.5 M trichloroacetic acid and chilled to 0 °C. One ml of Fiske-SubbaRow color reagent was added, and the system was held at 0 °C for another 5 min and then warmed to room temperature. Absorbances at 740 nm were determined on a spectrophotometer.
Cell Proliferation StudiesTo determine the effects of potential inhibitors of ATP synthase on proliferation, the cells were seeded at 1 x 104 cells/well in 0.5 ml of medium containing the test substance in 12-well plates. At specified times thereafter, the cells were trypsinized, suspended in Isoton, counted, and sized on a CASY 1 Model TT counter.
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| RESULTS |
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Suitability of the AK/INT Assay for Measuring AK ActivityIn a model study of AK activity using the AK/INT assay, three different concentrations of rabbit muscle AK (27, 53, and 107 milliunits/ml) were used in 3.5 ml of primary assay mixture in the wells of a 6-well plate. AK activity was terminated at selected times by transferring 1.5-ml aliquots of the mixture to tubes containing Ap5A (final Ap5A concentration of 130 µM) on ice. Then, 0.15-ml aliquots were transferred to wells of a 96-well plate, and the secondary assay mixture was added. The 96-well plate was incubated at 37 °C with periodic A492 measurements. At 27 milliunits/ml AK, the rate of formation of ATP from ADP was constant for at least 30 min (Fig. 2A). At higher AK activities, the rate of ATP formation in Step 1 departed from linearity after 10 min of incubation because of ADP depletion. During the first 10 min, however, the rate of ATP formation from ADP was proportional to the activity of AK (Fig. 2B). ATP reference standards (200 µM ATP in the primary assay mixture instead of ADP and hexokinase) eliminated Reaction a in Fig. 1 and were used in this and all AK/INT assays. INT reduction in Step 2 was complete by 60 min (net A492 = 1.53 at 60 min; 1 absorbance unit at 492 nm = 20 nmol of INT-F/well in a 96-well plate) (Fig. 2C).
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8 min) (Fig. 3A), but could be stabilized, at least in part, by BSA. The concentration of BSA needed for half-maximal stabilization (EC50) of rabbit muscle AK was
1 µg/ml (Fig. 3B). Whether other substances in the AK/INT assay stabilize the enzyme was explored. Commercial rabbit muscle AK was incubated for 30 min at 37 °C with AMP, ADP, ATP, Mg2+, Triton X-100, or BSA, and its activity was determined by the AK/INT assay. Of these reagents, only BSA prevented rapid and complete loss of AK activity (Fig. 3C). Stability of Rabbit Muscle AK in HBSS in the Presence of Living CellsTo determine the stability of extracellular AK in the presence of living cells, HUVECs were seeded at 2.5 x 105 cells/well in a 12-well plate containing 3 ml of HUVEC medium. Additional wells had medium only; the plates were incubated for 24 h at 37 °C. The medium was removed, and the wells were washed zero to three times, 3 ml/wash, with HBSS. Then, 1 ml of a solution of rabbit muscle AK (prepared freshly on ice at 156 milliunits/ml in HBSS) with or without 20 µg/ml BSA was added to designated wells, and the plates were incubated at either 37 or 0 °C for 30 min. The supernatant solutions were transferred to tubes on ice and centrifuged, and 0.15-ml portions of the supernatants were transferred to the wells of a 96-well plate on ice. Then, 0.05 ml of modified secondary assay mixture was added, and the plate was incubated at 37 °C. The modified secondary assay mixture contained 600 µM ADP and 25.35 milliunits/ml hexokinase, so the concentrations of these components were equal to those used in the standard primary incubation. The final concentrations of all reagents were the same as those used in the AK/INT assay. The absorbances at 492 nm were determined at 60 min (Table 2). At 37 °C without BSA and cells, AK was completely inactivated by 30 min of preincubation (Table 2, row 3). Even at 0 °C, much of the activity was lost (row 1); but with 20 µg/ml BSA, the activity was maximal (row 2). At 37 °C in the presence of BSA but without a cell monolayer, a substantial portion of the activity was lost (row 4). At 37 °C in the presence of cells that had been washed zero to three times with HBSS, AK was stabilized (rows 58), apparently unaffected by the HBSS washings.
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0.6%) of the whole cultures.
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The rate of INT reduction with the whole culture extract (fifth well) was much greater than with the supernatant medium (first four wells), and an A492 value was obtained within the first 10 min of incubation. The kinetics of the assays of the supernatant medium are shown in Fig. 4. The results indicate that, in HBSS and DPBS, the cells released similar amounts of G6PD during the primary incubation. In DPBSA, the release was somewhat greater. The G6PD activities/h/1 x 106 cells, determined by linear regression analysis, are shown in Table 4.
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When the reaction had gone to completion, the positive control (200 µM ATP but no cells) produced a net A492 of 1.228 ± 0.040 (Fig. 5B); with ADP as substrate, the corresponding net A492 was only 0.009 ± 0.003 (Fig. 5B and inset), indicating that 0.75% of the ADP was actually ATP. Absorbances for the solutions that had been incubated with HUVECs are shown in Fig. 5A. They are, of course, much lower than those for the ATP control (Fig. 5B). Without Ap5A, a significant amount of ATP was formed from ADP; with Ap5A, essentially none was formed (Fig. 5A, difference between
and
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Effects of ATP Synthase Inhibitors and Ap5A on Purified F1-ATPaseTo determine whether Ap5A inhibits ATP synthase, a situation that could render it useless as a diagnostic agent for determining extracellular AK inhibition, Ap5A and well known inhibitors of the synthase were incubated with ATP plus isolated bovine heart mitochondrial F1-ATPase, and Pi formation was monitored. At 10 µM, two of the authentic F1-ATPase inhibitors, piceatannol (3033) and aurovertin B (34), strongly inhibited F1-ATPase activity (Table 6). Oligomycin, an inhibitor of F1F0-ATP synthase, would not be expected to act on the F1-ATPase preparation because it does not contain the F0 subunits; it was inactive in this assay (Table 6). Ap5Aat concentrations up to 100 µM, a concentration close to that used for AK inhibition, did not inhibit F1-ATPase.
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Effect of Oligomycin and Piceatannol on Extracellular ATP FormationPiceatannol and oligomycin (up to 20 µM) were tested for their effects on ATP formation from ADP by HUVECs. Cells were seeded at 1.5 x 106 cells/well in 10 ml of HUVEC medium in 100-mm tissue culture dishes and incubated for 24 h. The medium was removed, and the cell layers were washed once with 10 ml of HBSS. Three ml of primary assay mixture with and without 20 µM oligomycin or piceatannol was added, and the plates were incubated for 1 h at 37°C. The supernatant solutions were centrifuged; 0.15 ml was transferred to the wells of a 96-well plate; and 0.05 ml of secondary assay mixture was added. The 96-well plates were incubated further with periodic A492 measurements. When oligomycin was present in the primary incubation, the resulting A492 values were identical to that of the uninhibited control, indicating no inhibition of ATP formation in the extracellular medium by these agents. The result is consistent with the concept that the extracellular ATP was formed from ADP exclusively via AK. Piceatannol was found to interfere somewhat with the AK/INT assay. Its effect could be on AK, hexokinase, or both. (Total inhibition by 20 µM piceatannol was
20%.)
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| DISCUSSION |
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Analytical MethodsTo monitor the synthesis of small amounts of ATP from ADP, a simple, reliable, and sensitive multiwell plate assay, the AK/INT assay, was designed. It is a modification of the ATP/INT assay of Colvert et al.3 for measuring ATP and of the G6PD/INT assay (24) for determining the number of viable animal cells in culture. The AK/INT assay (outlined in Fig. 1) has two steps, each involving two reactions: Step 1, Reactions a and b; and Step 2, Reactions c and d. By intent, AK activity is rate-limiting. In Reaction a, AK enables the formation of ATP and AMP from ADP, the Keq of which is
1. By coupling it to Reaction b, ADP plus glucose is stoichiometrically converted to Glu-6-P and AMP. Reaction a can be terminated as needed by the addition of Ap5A (25). Because the ADP generated by Reaction b is reused in Reaction a, the Glu-6-P produced in Step 1 is the molar equivalent of the added ADP that is consumed in Reaction a, i.e. 2 ADP + 2 glucose
2 AMP + 2 Glu-6-P. In Step 2, Tris (pH 7.8), G6PD, NADP, phenazine methosulfate, INT, and Triton X-100 are added, and the mixture is incubated until Reactions c and d have gone to completion (
60 min under the conditions used here). The ATP/INT assay involves only Reactions bd (Fig. 1). Fig. 2C shows the kinetics of the AK/INT assay for 30 nmol of ATP/well in the 96-well plate format. As little as 1 nmol of ATP provided a net A492 reading of 0.04 on the plate reader (total volume of liquid in the well, 200 µl).
Validation of the AK/INT AssayThe AK/INT assay was validated with purified rabbit muscle AK (Fig. 2, A and B). At low AK activity, in this case, 27 milliunits/ml, the net A492 was a direct function of incubation time (Fig. 2A). At 27, 53, and 106 milliunits/ml, the net A492 values were proportional to the AK activity for the first 10 min (Fig. 2B) but not at later times (Fig. 2A). Departure from proportionality at the later times was due to depletion of ADP during the assay. When the reaction had gone to completion, 30 nmol of ADP/well (i.e. 0.15 ml of 200 µM ADP) produced an A492 of 1.21.5 (Fig. 2C).
AK Stability in Aqueous SolutionBecause AK is unstable in aqueous solution, the conditions used to measure its activity in culture fluids had to be validated. Purified rabbit muscle AK was used for this purpose. (Purified chicken muscle AK behaved identically.) In water at 37 °C, rabbit muscle AK had a half-time of
8 min (Fig. 3A). However, in the presence of 1 µg/ml BSA, 50% of the enzymatic activity remained at 30 min (Fig. 3B). At 0 °C, such loss of activity was greatly reduced (Table 2, compare rows 1 and 3). Several other solutes used or produced in the AK/INT assay (AMP, ADP, ATP, Triton X-100, and Mg2+) had little or no protective effect on the enzyme at 37 °C (Fig. 3C). In the presence of a cell monolayer, even after three washings with HBSS, there was essentially no loss of AK activity (Table 2, rows 58). The beneficial effect of cells, even washed three times, was greater than that of 200 µg/ml BSA (Table 2, compare rows 4 and 8). Something in the culture environment, either residual cell-adherent FBS or the plasma membrane of the cells themselves, must stabilize the enzyme.
Relative Abundance of AK Inside and Outside HUVECsAK could access the medium of HUVEC cultures either by programmed transfer to or through the plasma membrane (ecto-AK) or simply by leakage due to compromised integrity of the plasma membrane or death of a small fraction of the cell population. If the passage of AK into the medium were due to a defective plasma membrane, the enzymatic activity would probably be small but proportional to the intracellular AK concentration. Extracellular and total AK activities were measured and are reported in terms of nanomoles of ATP produced from ADP by way of AK/h/1 x 106 cells (Table 3). The total AK activity was very large compared with the extracellular activity and, for practical purposes, considered to be equal to the intracellular activity. To measure extracellular AK activity, it was necessary to use substantially more cells per culture than when measuring total AK activity. Although BSA was included in the preliminary wash and/or the primary incubation mixture in some of the cultures, there was no apparent advantage to having it there (Table 3). For total activity, Triton X-100 was included in the primary assay mixture to lyse the cells. It did not adversely affect the enzymatic activity. For the secondary incubation, the concentration of Triton X-100 in the mixture was adjusted so that assay conditions for all samples were the same.
The total AK activity of the HUVEC cultures was calculated to be
6500 nmol of ATP formed from ADP/h/1 x 106 cells, whereas the extracellular AK activity was only 40 nmol,
0.6% of the total. The very small external activity was consistent with either low ecto-AK activity or slow AK leakage from the cytoplasm, for whatever reason. Differential trypan blue staining counts indicated the existence of 15% stained (dead) cells, values too large and inconsistent to confirm the observed extracellular AK activity (data not shown). Trypan blue staining is obviously less sensitive than extracellular/intracellular enzyme ratios for monitoring possible cell incontinence.
Relative Abundance of G6PD Inside and Outside HUVECsAn approach to determining whether extracellular AK had leaked from the cytoplasm was to measure the extracellular activity of another, relatively abundant cytoplasmic enzyme, G6PD. It, too, is unstable in aqueous solution but is stabilized by NADP. G6PD activity was measured with the same sensitivity as that for AK activity using the reactions in Step 2 of the AK/INT assay (Fig. 1). If extracellular AK activity were due to "ecto-AK" (i.e. AK actively transported to or through the plasma membrane), other enzymes of the cytoplasm would likely not experience the same proportionate translocation. On the other hand, if it were due to cell leakage or death, other cytoplasmic enzymes should be present externally in similar relative abundance.
In HUVEC cultures, G6PD accessed the extracellular medium in small but measurable amounts (Fig. 4). More was released during 30 min of incubation at 37 °C in DPBSA than in either DPBS or HBSS. This greater loss of G6PD from the cells in DPBSA than in DPBS or HBSS could be due to the absence of divalent cations in DPBSA. Without NADP in the primary assay mixture, no extracellular G6PD was detected (Fig. 4), consistent with the stabilizing effect of NADP on the enzyme. In HBSS, the proportion of extracellular to total G6PD was similar to that for AK, 0.9 versus 0.6%, respectively (Tables 3 and 4). Extracellular G6PD is most likely from cell leakage or death. Under such circumstances, similar loss of other cytoplasmic macromolecules, including AK, would be expected. The findings reveal that there are losses of cytoplasmic macromolecules from cells into their bathing medium, at least into the "physiological saline" solutions used here and in other studies of extracellular and plasma membrane enzymes (1, 3, 4, 11, 12, 1720). There are other environmental characteristics that can affect plasma membrane permeability, including, for example, HEPES buffer (35). Both AK and G6PD were detected in the clarified medium, indicating that they are in solution rather than anchored to the plasma membrane.
Cell-type Specificity of Extracellular ATP SynthesisPM-ATP synthase has been reported in vascular endothelial and epidermal cells (35, 9). Extracellular ATP was indeed produced from ADP by HUVECs, a normal human endothelial cell line, but also by WI38 cells, a human fibroblastoid cell line, in this case, at 0.14 and 0.20 µmol of ATP/h/1 x 106 cells, respectively (Table 5). The ratio of external to total AK activity was even greater for WI38 cells than for HUVECs. In the case of the total AK activity, ATP synthesis could not have been due to PM-ATP synthase because the plasma and mitochondrial membranes were permeabilized with Triton X-100. Both external and total ATP syntheses can be attributed to AK activity. This outcome was confirmed in part by experiments showing equivalence between ADP consumed and INT-F formed (data not shown). Equivalence requires recycling of ADP as indicated in Step 1 (Fig. 1).
Substrate PurityATP is a common contaminant of commercial ADP. Several ADP lots were analyzed for contamination and found to contain from <0.5 to
5% ATP. Unless its presence is recognized, the contaminant could be interpreted as a product of ATP synthase or other ATP-synthesizing enzymatic activity. In this study, such contamination was routinely monitored: only those ADP lots having <1% ATP were used, and the results were corrected for the contribution of contaminating ATP. Some reports of PM-ATP synthase activities may not have taken this pitfall into consideration. For example, in the studies of Arakaki et al. (1) using HUVECs, the kinetics of ATP formation revealed that accretion of extracellular ATP ceased within 30 s. Contaminating ATP could be some or all of the ATP reported as product. The results, given as nanomoles of ATP/mg of protein (specific concentration), did not reveal how much of the added ADP was actually converted to ATP. The denominator, milligrams of protein (presumably in the supernatant medium, HEPES-buffered saline), would be very small, particularly after such brief exposure to cells, making the calculated specific concentration large. Alternatively, the brevity of the reaction period could be due to ADP exhaustion, but this seems unlikely because a large amount (200 µM) was used. Yet another is enzyme inactivation, likewise unlikely in so short a time period.
Our determinations of extracellular ATP at early time periods are similar to those of Arakaki et al. (1) but revealed that the amount of ATP found in the extracellular fluid was equivalent to that contaminating the ADP. Furthermore, as the concentration of the ADP was increased or decreased, so did the amount of detected ATP, always in proportion to the contaminant. Arakaki et al. also indicated that the specific concentration of extracellular ATP was large compared with that of intracellular ATP. This outcome, although counterintuitive, could be explained if, in the case of intracellular ATP, the denominator of the calculation were protein content of the cell layer, which would be large compared with that of the medium (assuming that the specific concentration of ATP in the medium was based on the protein content of that liquid). A further complication is that the exogenous ADP with its attendant ATP (110 nmol/ml in our experience), being excluded from the cytoplasm, would not add to the internal ATP pool as it does to the external pool.
Role of PM-ATP Synthase in the Formation of Extracellular ATPExtracellular ATP formation by intact HUVECs was examined in the presence and absence of a number of specific inhibitors, including Ap5A, oligomycin, and piceatannol. Ap5A selectively and strongly inhibits AK (25); oligomycin inhibits F1F0-ATP synthase (36); and piceatannol inhibits F1-ATPase (30, 31).
The IC50 values of Ap5A for purified rabbit and chicken muscle AK, as well as for the HUVEC and WI38 enzymes, both intracellular and extracellular, were almost identical,
1 µM (data not shown). At 130 µM Ap5A, AK activity was completely repressed, consistent with the likelihood that this enzyme is responsible for most, if not all, of the ATP generated in the medium (Fig. 5A). In the assay, the net A492 values were corrected for the contribution of ATP to both ADP and Ap5A (0.90 and 0.53%, respectively). It should be noted that Ap5Aupto200 µM did not inhibit beef heart mitochondrial F1-ATP synthase. Moreover, up to 20 µM oligomycin did not inhibit HUVEC extracellular ATP synthesis. Under these conditions, it is probably safe to say that PM-ATP synthase either was not present in the plasma membrane or, if present, was not active.
Piceatannol inhibition of ATP synthase is not as diagnostic as oligomycin inhibition because it has additional inhibitory targets, including several protein-tyrosine kinases (30, 31) and, in our experience, small but measurable effects on adenylate kinase and hexokinase. It is a strong inhibitor of F1-ATPase. Not surprisingly, it does inhibit HUVEC proliferation but not as strongly as oligomycin. Possibly, piceatannol does not traverse the plasma membrane as readily as oligomycin.
PM-ATP Synthase and AngiostatinPM-ATP synthase is reported to be an angiostatin receptor on the plasma membrane of endothelial cells. Angiostatin is a kringle domain-containing polypeptide derived from either plasmin or plasminogen (3, 4, 29, 37). An interaction between angiostatin and ATP synthase has been suggested to down-regulate proliferation and migration of vascular endothelial cells, with possible important normal and anti-oncological outcomes (3, 4). Evidence for the presence of ATP synthase in the plasma membrane of HUVECs was addressed in several ways by Moser et al. (3), including immunological fluorescence labeling of the plasma membrane using polyclonal IgG raised against the
-subunit of F1-ATP synthase, followed by either fluorescence microscopy or flow cytometry. Labeling was done so as to preclude access of the antibody to the cytoplasm, which is abundantly endowed with F1F0-ATP synthase and which, if labeled, could compromise interpretation of the results. However, the fluorescence images were less than definitive and could be interpreted as showing cytoplasmic labeling. This alternative reading of the fluorograms is supported by the corresponding transmission light photomicrograph of the same cells: they appeared to be permeabilized, i.e. only two-dimensional. The flow cytometric studies are also in need of critical reassessment. Labeling profiles of the cells similar to those in the study would result if the cells were inadvertently permeabilized during staining. The staining protocol involved centrifuging the living cells at high speed (microcentrifuging) to separate them from the primary antibody. Such treatment challenges the integrity of the plasma membrane by compression, with possible consequent exposure of mitochondrial ATP synthase to the antibody. The evidence for PM-ATP synthase needs verification.
In conclusion, ATP was produced from ADP in the extracellular media of HUVECs and WI38 cells in culture. AK catalyzed the process. The presence of AK in the media appears to be due to cell leakage or death rather than programmed export from the cells. Extracellular ATP synthesis from ADP by PM-ATP synthase was not detected. Interpretation of these results and the results of others awaits detailed reassessment of the experiments.
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1 To whom correspondence should be addressed: Dept. of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas, 1200 Sunnyside Ave., Lawrence, KS 66045-7534. Tel.: 785-864-3334; Fax: 785-864-5321; E-mail: richter{at}ku.edu.
2 The abbreviations used are: PM-ATP synthase, plasma membrane ATP synthase; AK, adenylate kinase; HUVECs, human umbilical vein endothelial cells; FBS, fetal bovine serum; G6PD, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase; Ap5A, P1,P5-di(adenosine 5')-pentaphosphate; INT, p-iodonitrotetrazolium violet; HBSS, Hanks' balanced salt solution; DPBS, Dulbecco's phosphate-buffered saline; BSA, bovine serum albumin; Tricine, N-[2-hydroxy-1,1-bis(hydroxymethyl)ethyl]glycine; INT-F, p-iodonitrotetrazolium violet formazan. ![]()
3 K. K. Colvert, A. P. Pirotte, G. Haslam, J. A. Knight, H. S. Samra, P. A. Kitos, and M. L. Richter, submitted for publication. ![]()
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