![]() |
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CARDIOVASCULAR
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
Received July 7, 2006; accepted September 28, 2006.
| Abstract |
|---|
|
|
|---|
1 adrenoceptor agonist phenylephrine (PE). The A1R agonist N6-cyclopentyladenosine (CPA), the A2AR agonist CGS21680 [2-p-(2-carboxyethyl)phenethylamino-5'-N-ethylcarboxamidoadenosine], and the A3R agonist N6-(3-iodobenzyl)adenosine-5'-methyluronamide (IB-MECA) all prevented PE-induced hypertrophy. Glibenclamide, a nonselective KATP channel blocker reversed the antihypertrophic effect of all three AR agonists as determined by cell size and atrial natriuretic peptide expression and early c-fos up-regulation. In contrast, the mitoKATP blocker 5-hydroxydecanoic acid selectively attenuated the effect of CGS21680 and IB-MECA, whereas HMR1098 [1-[[5-[2-(5-chloro-o-anisamido)ethyl]-2-methoxyphenyl]sulfonyl]-3-methylthiourea, sodium salt], a specific blocker of sarcKATP, only abolished the antihypertrophic effect of CPA. Moreover, both CGS21680 and IB-MECA but not CPA decreased the mitochondrial membrane potential when PE was present, similarly to that seen with diazoxide, and both agents inhibited PE-stimulated elevation in mitochondrial Ca2+. All AR agonists diminished PE-induced phosphoserine/threonine kinase and protein kinase B up-regulation, which was unaffected by any KATP blocker. Our data suggest that AR-mediated antihypertrophic effects are mediated by distinct KATP channels, with sarcKATP mediating the antihypertrophic effects of A1R activation, whereas mitoKATP activation mediates the antihypertrophic effects of both A2AR and A3R agonists.
-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (Sanada et al., 2002
Previous studies have shown that A1 receptor stimulation activates KATP channels in rat cardiac cells (Kirsch et al., 1990
). It has also been shown that activation of adenosine A1 receptors induces myocardial preconditioning in the canine heart by opening KATP channels (Auchampach and Gross, 1993
). In view of this evidence and the finding that both diazoxide and adenosine receptor agonists attenuate hypertrophy, we hypothesized that the direct antihypertrophic effects of adenosine receptor stimulation could involve KATP activation. Accordingly, the present study was designed to determine whether KATP channels mediate the antihypertrophic effect of adenosine receptors in neonatal rat ventricular myocytes and, if so, to assess and identify the nature of KATP involvement in mediating the antihypertrophic effect of adenosine receptor activation.
| Materials and Methods |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Drugs Used and Experimental Design. To first determine whether the activation of adenosine receptors inhibited PE (10 µM)-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy via KATP channels, we assessed the effect of KATP inhibition with the following pharmacological agents that were added 30 min before adenosine receptor activation: the mitoKATP blocker 5-HD (100 µM), the sarcKATP blocker HMR1098 (100 µM), or the nonspecific KATP blocker glibenclamide (50 µM). The following adenosine receptor agonists were then administered for a further 30 min, after which PE was administered for 24 h: the A1R agonist CPA (1 µM), the A2AR agonist CGS21680 (100 nM), or the A3R agonist IB-MECA (100 nM). For some experiments, the putative mitoKATP opener diazoxide (100 µM) was used as a positive control. All drugs were purchased from Sigma (Oakville, ON, Canada), with the exception of HMR1098, which was a kind gift from Sanofi-Aventis (Frankfurt, Germany).
Cell Surface Area Measurement. The cells were plated at a density of 1 x 106 cells/6-cm dish to obtain individually plated cells. At the end of the treatment period, the cells were washed twice with PBS, after which they were viewed using a Leica DMIL inverted microscope (Leica, Wetzlar, Germany) equipped with a Polaroid digital camera (Polaroid Corporation, Waltham, MA). For each sample (n = 1), eight random images were taken, and at least 40 individual cell surface area measurements were made using Mocha software.
Real-Time PCR. Myocytes were plated at a density of 6 x 106 cells/6-cm dish. After washing twice with PBS, RNA was isolated by adding 1 ml of TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen) to each dish. Five micrograms of total RNA was applied for reverse transcription by Superscript II reverse transcriptase (Invitrogen). One microliter from the 20-µl cDNA product was used for each PCR reaction. Real-time PCR was performed with a DNA Engine Opticon Real Time System (MJ Research, Waltham, MA) with the SYBR Green JumpStart Taq ReadyMix kit (Sigma) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Primer sequences for individual genes and PCR conditions are shown in Tables 1 and 2.
|
|
Fluorescence Measurement of Mitochondrial Membrane Potential and Mitochondrial Ca2+ Concentration. Cells were plated at 1 x 106 cells/well in 24-well dishes. After the cells were treated with PE for 30 min, the mitochondrial membrane potential (
m) was measured by loading cells with 10 µg/ml JC-1 (Molecular Probes, Eugene, OR) at 37°C for 15 min, and the mitochondrial Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]m) was monitored with the Ca2+ fluorophore Rhod-2 (Molecular Probes). The cardiomyocytes were loaded with 10 µg/ml Rhod-2 for 120 min at 4°C and then incubated for 30 min at 37°C in the culture media. This two-step cold loading/warm incubation protocol achieved exclusive loading of Rhod-2 into the mitochondria (Trollinger et al., 2000
). Myocytes loaded with JC-1 or Rhod-2 were washed with PBS, and the fluorescence was measured by a Tecan multifunction microplate reader (Tecan, Durham, NC). JC-1 was excited at 488 nm, the red emission fluorescence was detected at 595 nm, and the green emission fluorescence was detected at 535 nm. The 
m is presented as a ratio of 595/535 nm compared with control cells. Rhod-2 was excited at 540 nm, with emission monitored at 605 nm.
|

m. Cells were plated at 3 x 106 cells/3.5-cm glass-bottomed dish precoated with type I collagen. After the cells were treated with PE for 30 min, the cells were washed with PBS, and JC-1 was added to each well to reach a final concentration as 10 µg/ml. The cells were incubated at 37°C for 30 min and then washed with PBS three times. Images were recorded on a Zeiss LSM 510 confocal microscope (Carl Zeiss GmbH, Jena, Germany). JC-1 was excited at 488 nm by an argon ion laser with red and green emissions detected at 568 and 510 nm, respectively.
Western Blotting for Phosphorylated and Total Akt. Cells were plated at a concentration of 6 x 106 cells/6-cm dish. After washing twice with PBS, the cells were scraped into 100 µl of lysis buffer (20 mM Tris, 150 mM NaCl, 1% Triton X-100, 10% glycerol, 2 mM EDTA, 2 mM EGTA, 50 mM NaF, 200 µM Na3VO4, 10 mM Na4P2O7, 40 mM
-glycerophosphate, 10 µg/ml leupeptin, 1 µM pepstatin A, 1 mM PMSF, and 1 µM colyculin A). The lysate was transferred to 1.5-ml Eppendorf tubes, sonicated, and then centrifuged at 10,000g for 5 min at 4°C. The supernatant was transferred to a fresh tube, and the protein concentration was assayed by the Bradford protein assay kit (Bio-Rad, Mississauga, ON, Canada). Thirty micrograms of protein were loaded in 10% SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and transferred to nylon membranes (Amersham, Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire, UK). The membranes were blocked in 5% dry milk for 3 h with primary antibody for 2 h and secondary antibody for 1 h and then detected by enhanced chemiluminescence reagent (Amersham). After detection by phospho-Akt (Ser473) antibody, the same blot was stripped and reprobed by total Akt antibody to demonstrate equal sample loading. Antibodies against phospho-Akt (Ser473) and total Akt were purchased from Cell Signaling (Beverly, MA) and used at a 1:1000 dilution.
|
| Results |
|---|
|
|
|---|
|
|
The Effect of Adenosine Receptor Agonists on Mitochondrial Membrane Potential in Neonatal Cardiomyocytes. To obtain direct evidence that CGS21680 and IB-MECA inhibited PE-induced hypertrophy through opening mitoKATP channels, the 
m of these cells was measured. The cells were labeled with 10 µg/ml JC-1, and the fluorescence at 595 and 535 nm was measured by a fluorescence plate reader and imaged by confocal microscopy. Mitochondrial depolarization was indicated by a decrease of the ratio of F595/F535. Figure 5 shows the changes in 
m when cells were treated with adenosine receptor agonists and diazoxide with or without PE. Neither diazoxide nor adenosine receptor agonists alone exerted any effect on 
m compared with control cells (Fig. 5A, white bars). However, in the presence of PE (Fig. 5A, black bars), diazoxide significantly reduced 
m by 23% in cells exposed to PE. Likewise, both CGS21680 and IB-MECA significantly reduced 
m by 18 and 34%, respectively, in cells exposed to PE. In contrast, CPA was without effect on 
m.
|
The Effect of Diazoxide and Adenosine Receptor Agonists on [Ca2+]m. We next examined treatments on [Ca2+]m in neonatal cardiomyocytes by Rhod-2 staining. As shown in Fig. 6A, PE significantly increased [Ca2+]m by 23%, whereas this was completely abrogated by diazoxide as well as CGS21680 and IB-MECA. In contrast, CPA was without effect. The data in Fig. 6B show that the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniport inhibitor ruthenium red inhibited the Ca2+ overload induced by 100 µM H2O2 in mitochondria, confirming that the Rhod-2 staining method is specific for mitochondrial Ca2+ measurement.
|
|
|
|
| Discussion |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Mitochondrial KATP channel activation is associated with numerous effects, including membrane depolarization and changes in Ca2+ homeostasis (Holmuhamedov et al., 1998
). Accordingly, to obtain further evidence that activation of A2AR and A3R opens mitoKATP channels, we assessed the changes in mitochondrial membrane potential and mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake in intact myocytes using the fluorescence dyes JC-1 and Rhod-2, respectively. Diazoxide was used as a positive control, although surprisingly, it was without effect on either mitochondrial membrane potential or mitochondrial Ca2+ content on its own. However, diazoxide was able to depolarize the membrane and decrease Ca2+ accumulation in the presence of PE, suggesting that the mitoKATP channel does not play an important role in mitochondrial homeostasis under normal condition, but its activation modulates the responses to cellular stimulation, such as that in response to PE. Our finding with diazoxide is in agreement with a study by Ishida et al. (2001
), who showed that diazoxide was without direct effects on mitochondrial membrane potential or Ca2+ levels in ventricular myocytes but abrogated ouabain-induced mitochondrial Ca2+ levels that were associated with decreased JC-1 fluorescence. Interestingly, in our study, both the A2AR agonist CGS21680 and A3R agonist IB-MECA were also able to decrease the mitochondrial membrane potential as well as Ca2+ accumulation in PE-treated myocytes, similarly to that seen with diazoxide, although the A1R agonist CPA was without effect. It is important to note that mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake is driven by the mitochondrial membrane potential (Gunter and Pfeiffer, 1990
). Therefore, it is likely that A2AR and A3R activation opens mitochondrial KATP and results in the decreases in the mitochondria membrane potential, thus reducing the driving force of Ca2+ influx and attenuating the mitochondria Ca2+ overload induced by PE. Thus, a reduction in "mitochondrial remodeling" may constitute an important contributor to the antihypertrophic effect of both A2AR and A3R activation. A brief depolarization of mitochondrial membrane may exert cardioprotection by preventing Ca2+ entry into the matrix. However, a prolonged reduction of mitochondrial membrane potential may indicate opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore. Indeed, we have demonstrated such a potential contribution of mitochondria to postinfarction responses in rats treated with a sodium-hydrogen exchange inhibitor (Javadov et al., 2005
).
Although our data support the hypothesis that both A2AR and A3R activation inhibit PE-induced cardiac hypertrophy through the opening of mitoKATP channels in neonatal cardiomyocytes, the phenomenon is difficult to explain at present, particularly because the structure and pharmacological profile of these two receptors are quite different. Although it could be suggested that rat cardiomyocytes do not express the A3 receptor and that IB-MECA induces an unspecific effect through the A2A receptor rather than A3 receptor, we have found using Western blotting that the A1R, A2AR, and A3R are all expressed in neonatal cardiomyocytes (data not shown). Thus, it is unlikely that the effects of the receptor agonists were due to nonspecific effects of these agents, although this cannot be ruled out with certainty at this time.
A question that remains concerns the molecular and cellular bases for the antihypertrophic effect of adenosine receptor activation and contributing roles of KATP channels. Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt (also known as PKB) are important antiapoptotic signaling pathways that have been implicated recently in cardiac hypertrophy (Dorn and Force, 2005
). However, we showed previously that ERK1/2 was not involved in the antihypertrophic effect of either diazoxide (Xia et al., 2004
) or activation of adenosine receptors (Gan et al., 2005
). In the current study, we focused on the potential contribution of Akt by determining the effects of treatments on Akt phosphorylation/activation. Indeed, PE induced a potent Akt up-regulation that reached maximum 30 min after PE addition, whereas each of the three adenosine receptor agonists induced a much earlier (5 min) and transient Akt up-regulation. This finding is generally similar to that reported by Germack et al. (2004
), who demonstrated A1R and A3R, but contrary to our findings, not A2AR-dependent Akt activation in neonatal cardiomyocytes with peak up-regulation of Akt at 5 min with reversal to control by 30 min. Thus, adenosine receptor agonists seem to have complex effects on Akt activation, a direct early and transient direct activation, and an ability to prevent subsequent PE-induced Akt phosphorylation. The basis for these diverse effects of adenosine receptor agonists is uncertain at present, but the results suggest that prevention of Akt up-regulation is associated with the antihypertrophic effects of adenosine receptor agonists. However, KATP blockers that reversed the antihypertrophic effects of adenosine receptor agonists failed to reverse the inhibitory effects of adenosine agonists on Akt phosphorylation. Moreover, diazoxide, which prevents PE-induced hypertrophy (Xia et al., 2004
), failed to inhibit PE-induced Akt up-regulation. These data suggest that KATP channel opening probably occurs downstream to Akt activation, which serves to explain why neither KATP blockers nor diazoxide exerted any effect on inhibition of Akt activation by adenosine receptor agonists. When taken together, our results suggest a potential role of Akt activation in mediating the hypertrophic effect of PE. The ability of adenosine receptor agonists to prevent Akt activation is encouraging in terms of implicating Akt in the antihypertrophic effect of adenosine receptor activation. However, our results clearly indicate that the degree of Akt phosphorylation can also be dissociated from the hypertrophic response in view of the inability of KATP blockers to reverse Akt inhibition by adenosine receptor agonists despite their ability to reverse the antihypertrophic effect of these agents.
In conclusion, our study shows an important role for KATP in mediating the antihypertrophic effects of multiple adenosine receptor subtype activation. Based on our results, we propose that the antihypertrophic effect of A1R activation is dependent on sarcKATP channel activity, whereas mitoKATP activity mediates the antihypertrophic effects of both A2A and A3 receptor activation. Although prevention of Akt phosphorylation was associated with the antihypertrophic effects of adenosine receptor activation, the precise role of this pathway needs to be studied further.
| Footnotes |
|---|
M.K. holds a Canada Research Chair in Experimental Cardiology.
Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at http://jpet.aspetjournals.org.
ABBREVIATIONS: sarcKATP, sarcolemmal ATP-sensitive potassium channel; mitoKATP, mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium channel; PE, phenylephrine; AR, adenonosine receptor; 5-HD, 5-hydroxydecanoic acid; HMR1098, 1-[[5-[2-(5-chloro-o-anisamido)ethyl]-2-methoxyphenyl]sulfonyl]-3-methylthiourea, sodium salt; CPA, N6-cyclopentyladenosine; CGS21680, 2-p-(2-carboxyethyl)phenethylamino-5'-N-ethylcarboxamidoadenosine; IB-MECA, N6-(3-iodobenzyl)adenosine-5'-methyluronamide; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; JC-1, 5,5',6,6'-tetrachloro-1,1',3,3' tetraethylbenzimidazolylcarbocyanine iodide, chloride; Rhod-2, 1-[2-amino-5-(3-dimethylamino-6-dimethylammonio-9-xanthenyl)phenoxy]-2-(2-amino-5-methylphenoxy)ethane-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid, chloride; Akt, serine/threonine kinase, protein kinase B; ANP, atrial natriuretic peptide.
Address correspondence to: Dr. Morris Karmazyn, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Medical Sciences Building, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada N6A 5C1. E-mail: Morris.Karmazyn{at}Schulich.uwo.ca
| References |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Auchampach JA and Gross GJ (1993) Adenosine A1 receptors, KATP channels, and ischemic preconditioning in dogs. Am J Physiol 264: 13271336.
Auchampach JA, Grover GJ, and Gross GJ (1992) Blockade of ischaemic preconditioning in dogs by the novel ATP dependent potassium channel antagonist sodium 5-hydroxydecanoate. Cardiovasc Res 26: 10541062.
Cohen MV, Baines CP, and Downey JM (2000) Ischemic preconditioning: from adenosine receptor to KATP channel. Annu Rev Physiol 62: 79109.[CrossRef][Medline]
Dorn GW2 and Force T (2005) Protein kinase cascades in the regulation of cardiac hypertrophy. J Clin Investig 115: 527537.[CrossRef][Medline]
Frey N and Olson EN (2003) Cardiac hypertrophy: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Annu Rev Physiol 65: 4579.[CrossRef][Medline]
Gan XT, Chakrabarti S, and Karmazyn M (2003) Increased endothelin-1 and endothelin receptor expression in myocytes of ischemic and reperfused rat hearts and ventricular myocytes exposed to ischemic conditions and its inhibition by nitric oxide generation. Can J Physiol Pharmacol 81: 105113.[CrossRef][Medline]
Gan XT, Rajapurohitam V, Haist JV, Chidiac P, Cook MA, and Karmazyn M (2005) Inhibition of phenylephrine-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy by activation of multiple adenosine receptor subtypes. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 312: 2734.
Garlid KD, Paucek P, Yarov-Yarovoy V, Murray HN, Darbenzio RB, D'Alonzo AJ, Lodge NJ, Smith MA, and Grover GJ (1997) Cardioprotective effect of diazoxide and its interaction with mitochondrial ATP-sensitive K+ channels: possible mechanism of cardioprotection. Circ Res 81: 10721082.
Germack R, Griffin M, and Dickenson JM (2004) Activation of protein kinase B by adenosine A1 and A3 receptors in newborn rat cardiomyocytes. J Mol Cell Cardiol 37: 989999.[CrossRef][Medline]
Gunter TE and Pfeiffer DR (1990) Mechanisms by which mitochondria transport calcium. Am J Physiol 258: 755786.
Holmuhamedov EL, Jovanovic S, Dzeja PP, Jovanovic A, and Terzic A (1998) Mitochondrial ATP-sensitive K+ channels modulate cardiac mitochondrial function. Am J Physiol 275: 15671576.
Ishida H, Hirota Y, Genka C, Nakazawa H, Nakaya H, and Sato T (2001) Opening of mitochondrial K(ATP) channels attenuates the ouabain-induced calcium overload in mitochondria. Circ Res 89: 856858.
Javadov S, Huang C, Kirshenbaum L, and Karmazyn M (2005) NHE-1 inhibition improves impaired mitochondrial permeability transition and respiratory function during postinfarction remodelling in the rat. J Mol Cell Cardiol 38: 135143.[CrossRef][Medline]
Kirsch GE, Codina J, Birnbaumer L, and Brown AM (1990) Coupling of ATP-sensitive K+ channels to A1 receptors by G proteins in rat ventricular myocytes. Am J Physiol 259: H820H826.
Liao Y, Takashima S, Asano Y, Asakura M, Ogai A, Shintani Y, Minamino T, Asanuma H, Sanada S, Kim J, et al. (2003) Activation of adenosine A1 receptor attenuates cardiac hypertrophy and prevents heart failure in murine left ventricular pressure-overload model. Circ Res 93: 759766.
Noma A (1983) ATP-regulated K+ channels in cardiac muscle. Nature (Lond) 305: 147148.[CrossRef][Medline]
Rajapurohitam V, Gan XT, Kirshenbaum LA, and Karmazyn M (2003) The obesity-associated peptide leptin induces hypertrophy in neonatal rat ventricular myocytes. Circ Res 93: 277279.
Sanada S, Node K, Asanuma H, Ogita H, Takashima S, Minamino T, Asakura M, Liao Y, Ogai A, Kim J, et al. (2002) Opening of the adenosine triphosphate-sensitive potassium channel attenuates cardiac remodeling induced by long-term inhibition of nitric oxide synthesis: role of 70-kDa S6 kinase and extracellular signal-regulated kinase. J Am Coll Cardiol 40: 991997.
Trollinger DR, Cascio WE, and Lemasters JJ (2000) Mitochondrial calcium transients in adult rabbit cardiac myocytes: inhibition by ruthenium red and artifacts caused by lysosomal loading of Ca(2+)-indicating fluorophores. Biophys J 79: 3950.
Xia Y, Rajapurohitam V, Cook MA, and Karmazyn M (2004) Inhibition of phenylephrine induced hypertrophy in rat neonatal cardiomyocytes by the mitochondrial KATP channel opener diazoxide. J Mol Cell Cardiol 37: 10631067.[CrossRef][Medline]
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
L. Chen, J. Zhang, T. X. Gan, Y. Chen-Izu, J. D. Hasday, M. Karmazyn, C. W. Balke, and S. M. Scharf Left ventricular dysfunction and associated cellular injury in rats exposed to chronic intermittent hypoxia J Appl Physiol, January 1, 2008; 104(1): 218 - 223. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||