M. Catia Sorgato

Further investigation on the high-conductance ion channel of the inner membrane of mitochondria

By use of the patch-clamp technique, the inner membrane of mouse liver and heart mitochondria is shown to contain a highly conductive (around 100 pS in symmetrical 150 mM KCl) and voltage-dependent ion channel. This channel closely resembles that previously found in cuprizone-treated mouse liver inner mitochondrial membrane. The paper discusses the electrical properties of the channel and its possible physiological function. The reconstitution in giant liposomes of a partially purified ox heart inner membrane fraction containing the channel and the use of various inhibitors are also presented.

Cellular Prion Protein Promotes Regeneration of Adult Muscle Tissue

ABSTRACT It is now well established that the conversion of the cellular prion protein, PrPC, into its anomalous conformer, PrPSc, is central to the onset of prion disease. However, both the mechanism of prion-related neurodegeneration and the physiologic role of PrPC are still unknown. The use of animal and cell models has suggested a number of putative functions for the protein, including cell signaling, adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation. Given that skeletal muscles express significant amounts of PrPC and have been related to PrPC pathophysiology, in the present study, we used skeletal muscles to analyze whether the protein plays a role in adult morphogenesis. We employed an in vivo paradigm that allowed us to compare the regeneration of acutely damaged hind-limb tibialis anterior muscles of mice expressing, or not expressing, PrPC. Using morphometric and biochemical parameters, we provide compelling evidence that the absence of PrPC significantly slows the regeneration process compared to wild-type muscles by attenuating the stress-activated p38 pathway, and the consequent exit from the cell cycle, of myogenic precursor cells. Demonstrating the specificity of this finding, restoring PrPC expression completely rescued the muscle phenotype evidenced in the absence of PrPC.

OXYGEN RADICALS AND HYDROGEN PEROXIDE IN RAT BRAIN MITOCHONDRIA

Production of hydrogen peroxide in cells is a general phenomenon and, in particular, subcellular organelles such as peroxisomes [ 11, microsomes [ 1 ] and mitochondria [ 1,2] have been shown to be a source of HaOs. A number of tissues have been found to contain mitochondria, which are able to form HaO, under some conditions both in vitro and in vivo. In particular mitochondria from liver, heart and kidney have been shown to produce relatively high amounts of HsOa [3,9]. The role of HaOa in cells is still a matter of discussion, and in particular that of HaOa produced in mitochondria. Since the finding that heart mitochondria produce superoxide radicals and may dismutate them into HzOz [4], the possible production of Oaby other types of mitochondria must also be evaluated. Moreover the comparison between mitochondria coming from different tissues may cast some light on the possible role of Osand HaOa in cells. In the present study the production of HzOz in mitochondria from rat brain has been investigated. It was found that, contrary to heart and liver mitochondria, but similarly to Ehrlich ascites tumor cell mitochondria [5] they do not produce HsOa . Oaradicals are produced in all mitochondrial species tested including mitochondria from ascites tumor cells, except brain mitochondria.

Reconstitution of the native mitochondrial outer membrane in planar bilayers. Comparison with the outer membrane in a patch pipette and effect of aluminum compounds

SummaryDetergent-free rat brain outer mitochondrial membranes were incorporated in planar lipid bilayers in the presence of an osmotic gradient, and studied at high (1 m KCl) and low (150 mm KCl) ionic strength solutions. By comparison, the main outer mitochondrial membrane protein, VDAC, extracted from rat liver with Triton X-100, was also studied in 150 mm KCl. In 1 m KCl, brain outer membranes gave rise to electrical patterns which resembled very closely those widely described for detergent-extracted VDAC, with transitions to several subconducting states upon increase of the potential difference, and sensitivity to polyanion. The potential dependence of the conductance of the outer membrane, however, was steeper and the extent of closure higher than that observed previously for rat brain VDAC. In 150 mm KCl, bilayers containing only one channel had a conductance of 700 ± 23 pS for rat brain outer membranes, and 890 ± 29 pS for rat liver VDAC. Use of a fast time resolution setup allowed demonstration of open-close transitions in the millisecond range, which were independent of the salt concentration and of the protein origin. We also found that a potential difference higher than approx. ± 60 mV induced an almost irreversible decrease of the single channel conductance to few percentages of the full open state and a change in the ionic selectivity. These results show that the behavior of the outer mitochondrial membrane in planar bilayers is close to that detected with the patch clamp (Moran et al., 1992, Eur. Biophys. J.20:311–319).The neurotoxicological action of aluminum was studied in single outer membrane channels from rat brain mitochondria. We found that μm concentrations of Al Cl3 and aluminum lactate decreased the conductance by about 50%, when the applied potential difference was positive relative to the side of the metal addition.

Ionic permeability of the mitochondrial outer membrane

The ionic permeability of the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM) was studied with the patch clamp technique. Electrical recording of intact mitochondria (hence of the outer membrane (OM)), derived from mouse liver, showed the presence of currents corresponding to low conductances (< 50 pS), as well as of four distinct conductances of 99 pS,152 pS, 220 pS and 307 pS (in 150 mM KCl). The latter were voltage gated, being open preferentially at positive (pipette) potentials. Very similar currents were found by patch clamping liposomes containing the isolated OM derived from rat brain mitochondria. Here a conductance of approximately 530 pS, resembling in its electrical characteristics a conductance already attributed to mitochondrial contact sites (Moran et al. 1990), was also detected. Immunoblot assays of mitochondria and of the isolated OM with antibodies against the outer membrane voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC) (Colombini 1979), showed the presence of the anion channel in each case. However, the typical electrical behaviour displayed by such a channel in planar bilayers could not be detected under our experimental conditions. From this study, the permeability of the OMM appears different from what has been reported hitherto, yet is more in line with that multifarious and dynamic structure which apparently should belong to it, at least within the framework of mitochondrial biogenesis (Pfanner and Neupert 1990).

Is, indeed, the prion protein a Harlequin servant of "many" masters?

Tens of putative interacting partners of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) have been identified, yet the physiologic role of PrPC remains unclear. For the first time, however, a recent paper has demonstrated that the absence of PrPC produces a lethal phenotype. Starting from this evidence, here we discuss the validity of past and more recent literature supporting that, as part of protein platforms at the cell surface, PrPC may bridge extracellular matrix molecules and membrane proteins to intracellular signaling pathways.

From cell protection to death: May Ca2+ signals explain the chameleonic attributes of the mammalian prion protein?

It is now accepted that a conformational change of the cellular prion protein (PrP(C)) generates the prion, the infectious agent responsible for lethal neurodegenerative disorders, named transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, or prion diseases. The mechanisms of prion-associated neurodegeneration are still obscure, as is the cell role of PrP(C), although increasing evidence attributes to PrP(C) important functions in cell survival. Such a behavioral dichotomy thus enables the prion protein to switch from a benign role under normal conditions, to the execution of neurons during disease. By reviewing data from models of prion disease and PrP(C)-null paradigms, which suggest a relation between the prion protein and Ca(2+) homeostasis, here we discuss the possibility that Ca(2+) is the factor behind the enigma of the pathophysiology of PrP(C). Ca(2+) features in almost all processes of cell signaling, and may thus tell us much about a protein that pivots between health and disease.

Possible role for Ca2+ in the pathophysiology of the prion protein?

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, or prion diseases, are lethal neurodegenerative disorders caused by the infectious agent named prion, whose main constituent is an aberrant conformational isoform of the cellular prion protein, PrP(C) . The mechanisms of prion-associated neurodegeneration and the physiologic function of PrP(C) are still unclear, although it is now increasingly acknowledged that PrP(C) plays a role in cell differentiation and survival. PrP(C) thus exhibits dichotomic attributes, as it can switch from a benign function under normal conditions to the triggering of neuronal death during disease. By reviewing data from models of prion infection and PrP-knockout paradigms, here we discuss the possibility that Ca(2+) is the hidden factor behind the multifaceted behavior of PrP(C) . By featuring in almost all processes of cell signaling, Ca(2+) might explain diverse aspects of PrP(C) pathophysiology, including the recently proposed one in which PrP(C) acts as a mediator of synaptic degeneration in Alzheimers disease.

The prion protein constitutively controls neuronal store-operated Ca2+ entry through Fyn kinase

The prion protein (PrPC) is a cell surface glycoprotein mainly expressed in neurons, whose misfolded isoforms generate the prion responsible for incurable neurodegenerative disorders. Whereas PrPC involvement in prion propagation is well established, PrPC physiological function is still enigmatic despite suggestions that it could act in cell signal transduction by modulating phosphorylation cascades and Ca2+ homeostasis. Because PrPC binds neurotoxic protein aggregates with high-affinity, it has also been proposed that PrPC acts as receptor for amyloid-β (Aβ) oligomers associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and that PrPC-Aβ binding mediates AD-related synaptic dysfunctions following activation of the tyrosine kinase Fyn. Here, use of gene-encoded Ca2+ probes targeting different cell domains in primary cerebellar granule neurons (CGN) expressing, or not, PrPC, allowed us to investigate whether PrPC regulates store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE) and the implication of Fyn in this control. Our findings show that PrPC attenuates SOCE, and Ca2+ accumulation in the cytosol and mitochondria, by constitutively restraining Fyn activation and tyrosine phosphorylation of STIM1, a key molecular component of SOCE. This data establishes the existence of a PrPC-Fyn-SOCE triad in neurons. We also demonstrate that treating cerebellar granule and cortical neurons with soluble Aβ(1–42) oligomers abrogates the control of PrPC over Fyn and SOCE, suggesting a PrPC-dependent mechanizm for Aβ-induced neuronal Ca2+ dyshomeostasis.

Estimation of H+-translocation stoicheiometry of mitochondrial ATPase by comparison of proton-motive forces with clamped phosphorylation potentials in submitochondrial particles

The proton-motive forces generated in submitochondrial particles by both hydrolysis of ATP and oxidation of succinate have been measured by flow dialysis and compared with the ambient phosphorylation potentials. It is concluded that three H+ are translocated for each ATP molecule hydrolysed or synthesised. By utilising rat liver mitochondria respiring with beta-hydroxybutyrate as a new system for regeneration of ATP from ADP and Pi, phosphorylation potentials were clamped at a range of values by using mixtures of particles and mitochondria in various ratios. As the rate of ATP hydrolysis by the particles was lowered, the proton-motive force decreased only slightly except at the very lowest rates, these results paralleling earlier studies on the relation between rate of respiration-driven proton translocation and proton-motive force.