Vol. 292, Issue 3, 1080-1086, March 2000

Suppression of a High-Affinity Transport System for Manganese in Cadmium-Resistant Metallothionein-Null Cells

Takahiro Yanagiya , Nobumasa Imura, Shuichi Enomoto, Yukihiro Kondo and Seiichiro Himeno

Department of Public Health and Molecular Toxicology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kitasato University, Tokyo, Japan (T.Y., N.I., S.H.); the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Saitama, Japan (T.Y., S.E.); and Department of Urology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan (Y.K.)

Cadmium is a hazardous heavy metal existing ubiquitously in the environment, but the mechanism of cadmium transport into mammalian cells has been poorly understood. Recently, we have established a cadmium-resistant cell line (Cd-rB5) from immortalized metallothionein-null mouse cells, and found that Cd-rB5 cells exhibited a marked decrease in cadmium uptake. To investigate the mechanism of altered uptake of cadmium in Cd-rB5 cells, incorporation of various metals was determined simultaneously using a multitracer technique. Cd-rB5 cells exhibited a marked decrease in manganese incorporation as well as that of cadmium. However, the reduced uptake of manganese was observed only at low concentrations, suggesting that a high-affinity component of the Mn²⁺ transport system was suppressed in Cd-rB5 cells. Competition experiments and kinetic analyses revealed that low concentrations of Cd²⁺ and Mn²⁺ share the same high-affinity pathway for their entry into cells. The mutual competition of Cd²⁺ and Mn²⁺ uptake was also observed in HeLa, PC12, and Caco-2 cells. The highest uptake of Cd²⁺ and Mn²⁺ by parental cells occurred at neutral pH, suggesting that this pathway is different from a divalent metal transporter 1 that can transport various divalent metals including Cd²⁺ and Mn²⁺ under acidic conditions. These results suggest that a high-affinity Mn²⁺ transport system is used for mammalian cellular cadmium uptake, and that the suppression of this pathway caused a marked decrease in cadmium accumulation in cadmium-resistant metallothionein-null cells.