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Molecular and Cellular Biology, August 2006, p. 5595-5602, Vol. 26, No. 15
0270-7306/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/MCB.00352-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Departments of Pharmacology,1 Pediatric Cardiology,2 Division of Nephrology,3 The Skirball Institute, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York,4 Vanderbilt University Medical School, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Nashville, Tennessee5
Received 27 February 2006/ Returned for modification 28 March 2006/ Accepted 9 May 2006
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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KCa3.1 subunits are components of an intermediate conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channel that are expressed in a variety of cells, including T and B lymphocytes, red blood cells, epithelial cells, and vascular smooth muscle cells (5, 11, 12, 14, 27). While KCa3.1 channels are expressed at low levels in resting naive T cells, KCa3.1 channels are rapidly upregulated following T-cell activation and are required for maximal Ca2+ influx and proliferation during the reactivation of naive T cells (2, 25). In contrast, resting naive T cells express the voltage-dependent K+ channel, Kv1.3, which is required for maximal Ca2+ influx into these cells. KCa3.1 channels are also expressed in central memory T cells, while Kv1.3 channels are expressed in effector memory T cells, where they play a pivotal role in Ca2+ influx and the activation of these cells (25, 26).
It has been appreciated for the past several years that KCa3.1 channels are constitutively bound to calmodulin and channel opening occurs only after Ca2+ binds to calmodulin (10, 15, 29). We recently found that, in addition to Ca2+, KCa3.1 channels also require phosphatidylinositol-3 phosphatase [PI(3)P] for activation and are inhibited by myotubularin-related protein 6 (MTMR6), a PI(3)P phosphatase (19, 20). MTMs are a large family of PI(3)P phosphatases and include 14 members in mammalian cells. MTM1 was first identified as the gene mutated in patients with X-linked congenital muscular dystrophy, and MTMR2 and MTMR13 were found to be mutated in a subset of patients with Charcot Marie tooth syndrome 4B, a peripheral demyelinating neuropathy (13, 22). Thus, while all MTMs function as PI(3)P phosphatases, these findings together with other evidence have indicated that MTMs are not functionally redundant with one another but rather regulate distinct biological processes (4, 13, 22, 30). In this regard, we found that KCa3.1 channels are inhibited specifically by only MTMR6 (19, 20; data not shown). We found that the coil-coiled (CC) domain of KCa3.1 specifically interacts with the CC domain of MTMR6 and have proposed that this interaction functions to localize MTMR6 adjacent to KCa3.1, thereby facilitating the dephosphorylation of PI(3)P in the plasma membrane adjacent to KCa3.1 resulting in the inhibition of KCa3.1. In this report, we sought to determine whether MTMR6, by downregulating KCa3.1 channel activity, functions as a negative regulator of KCa3.1 channels and Ca2+ influx in activated naive CD4 T cells.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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For lentiviral infection, purified naive T cells were preactivated with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 for two days, washed, and infected with a VSV-G pseudotyped HIV-derived lentivirus expressing internal ribosome entry site-CD24 that has previously been described (21) either alone (control) or containing wild-type MTMR6 [MTMR6(WT)] or phosphatase-dead MTMR6 [MTMR6(PD)] (20). Infected CD24-positive cells were either directly visualized by staining with fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled anti-CD24 antibodies or purified using biotin-conjugated anti-CD24 antibodies followed by streptavidin-conjugated magnetic activated cell sorter beads according to the manufacturer's protocol (Miltenyi Biotech). Thirty to 50% of human CD4 T cells were infected using this protocol, and greater then 85% of purified cells were CD24 positive (HSA positive) following purification, as assessed by fluorescence-activated cell sorter.
For small interfering RNA (siRNA) transfection, unstimulated human CD4 T cells were electroporated using AMAXA reagents (Amaxa Bioxystems) according to the manufacturer's protocol. After resting overnight to allow recovery, cells were stimulated for two days with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 as described above. For Ca2+ flux and proliferation experiments, cells were rested overnight in interleukin-2 prior to restimulation. A pool of siRNAs to human MTMR6 were purchased from Dharmacon. The sense sequences of siRNA oligonucleotides against MTMR6 used in the pool are as follows: 1, GAGAUUGCCAUGAUAUUUAUU; 2, GAACAUGUACCAUCAAUUUUU; 3, UAUCAAAGCUGUUAUGGAUUU; 4, GGAAGUCAAUGGCACUAAAUU.
Patch clamping.
Whole-cell patch clamping was performed on activated CD4 T cells 48 to 72 h after stimulation with anti-CD3 and antiCD28 antibodies as described previously (26) with some modification. Briefly, CD4 T cells were adhered to a laminin-coated coverslip, and patch clamping was performed at room temperature using a pipette solution containing the following (in mM, pH 7.2): K+ aspartate, 147; MgCl2, 2; HEPES, 10; EGTA, 10; CaCl2, 9.85 (10 µM free Ca2+). A bath solution was also used, which contained the following (in mM): Na+ aspartate, 160; KCl, 4.5; CaCl2, 2; MgCl2, 1; HEPES, 5. Patch clamp pipettes had resistances ranging between 4 to 5 M
. Current-voltage (IV) relationships were measured using ramp voltage clamp protocols (at 10-s intervals) from a holding potential of 80 mV to 120 mV, followed by ramp depolarization to +60mV of 200-ms duration. To reduce voltage-dependent potassium conductance, 10 µM free Ca2+ was used in the pipette solution (1). The current-voltage relationship was obtained by plotting the current during the depolarizing ramp phase as a function of the corresponding voltage. Membrane currents were filtered (3 dB at 1 kHz) and digitized at 10 kHz (pClamp 9.2 with Digidata 1200 ADC interface; Axon Instruments). Cell capacitance and pipette series resistances were compensated (usually >80%), and these were obtained using the "membrane test" function of Clampex. Cell capacitance for unstimulated cells was 2 to 2.5 pF, whereas activated cells had a membrane capacitance greater than 8 pF. The whole-cell current density was expressed as nA.
To determine whether phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibition affects channel activity, CD4 T cells were treated with the PI3K inhibitor wortmannin (100 nM) 45 min prior to patch clamping, and the IV relationship assay was performed as described above. To determine whether wortmannin treatment or overexpression of MTMR6 inhibited KCa3.1 by decreasing PI(3)P levels, we determined whether the addition of PI(3)P (100 nM) into the pipette solution during patch clamping restored channel activity. PI(3)P [C41H45Na3O16P2 (C6)] as well as other PIs were purchased from Echelon Biosciences and used according to specifications. All PIs were resuspended in water, flash frozen in liquid nitrogen, and used at a concentration of 100 nM in the pipette solution.
Intracellular Ca2+ activity. Cells were loaded at 1 x 106 cells/ml with 10 µM Fluo-4 AM ester (Molecular Probes) in RPMI medium for 30 min at room temperature, washed, and resuspended in RPMI. Cells were attached to poly-L-lysine-coated coverslip for 20 min in an RC-20 bath flow chamber (Warner Instrument Corp., Hamden, CT) and analyzed by laser confocal microscopy (Leica Microsystmes, Allendale, New Jersey) equipped with a 488-nm laser using a 63x oil objective. Line-scan images were obtained every 5 s. Background fluorescences obtained from regions containing no cells were digitally subtracted from each image. Data are represented as F/F0, with F representing fluorescence values at different time points and F0 representing cellular fluorescence at time zero. Cells were perfused with the bath solution (composition described previously) in the presence or absence of extracellular calcium and stimulated with 5 µg/ml of anti-CD3 cross-linked with 5 µg/ml of rat anti-mouse IgG.
Quantitative reverse transcription (RT)-PCR. Total RNA was isolated using Trizol reagent (Invitrogen) and then reverse transcribed using random hexamer primers. Quantitative PCR was then assessed using SYBR green 1 by iCycler iQ (Bio-Rad) using gene-specific primers purchased from QIAGEN.
Proliferation assays. Human dendritic cells (DCs) were purified and cultured in the presence of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor as described previously (16). For proliferation assays, DC were plated together with CD4 T cells in U-bottom 96-well plates at a ration of 10:1 (T cells:DCs) in the presence of various concentrations of staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB). Forty-eight hours after stimulation, cells were pulsed with [3H]thymidine, and [3H]thymidine incorporation was assessed as described previously (7).
| RESULTS |
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MTMR6 negatively regulates Ca2+ influx in CD4 T cells. We next determined whether the increase in KCa3.1 channel activity in MTMR6 siRNA-treated cells was also associated with an increase in Ca2+ influx. siRNA-treated cells were stimulated for 48 h with antibodies to CD3 and CD28 and, after resting overnight, were loaded with Fluo-4 AM (10 µM), and Ca2+ influx was determined by confocal microscopy following cross-linking with anti-CD3 antibodies. Ca2+ influx in anti-CD3 reactivated CD4 T cells was about twofold higher in MTMR6 siRNA-treated CD4 T cells than in control siRNA-treated cells (compare Fig. 4Ai and ii). In addition, overexpression of MTMR6(WT) in CD4 T cells not only resulted in a decrease in KCa3.1 channel activity (Fig. 2) but also inhibited Ca2+ influx in response to cross-linking CD3, whereas overexpression of MTMR6(PD) did not (Fig. 4B). Thus, these findings when taken together indicate that MTMR6 functions to downregulate KCa3.1 channel activity, which subsequently leads to the inhibition of Ca2+ influx in reactivated CD4 T cells.
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| DISCUSSION |
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We still do not know how the inhibition of the KCa3.1 channel by MTMR6 is regulated in activated CD4 T cells. One possibility is that MTMR6 functions constitutively to tonically inhibit the KCa3.1 channel and thereby sets a threshold for a stimulus to activate a T cell. This function of MTMR6 would then prevent small changes in Ca2+ influx resulting from nonspecific stimulation of the T-cell receptor to provide a sustained Ca2+ signal that would then lead to T-cell activation. This hypothesis is consistent with our data showing that silencing of MTMR6 led to activation of CD4 T cells at a 10-fold lower concentration of antigen than for control cells. This hypothesis is also reinforced by the finding that MTMR6 expression is upregulated along with KCa3.1 channel expression following T-cell activation and that MTMR6 and the KCa3.1 channel are constitutively associated via an interaction between their respective CC domains; the interaction between the CC domains of MTMR6 and the KCa3.1 channel is required to localize MTMR6 to the plasma membrane where it can then dephosphorylate PI(3)P and inhibit the KCa3.1 channel.
Previous studies have shown that PI3K play important roles in the activation of T lymphocytes (9, 17). For the most part, these studies have focused on the role of the class 1 PI3K in which a p85-p110 heterodimer is activated following the recruitment of p85 to phosphotyrosine-containing proteins, such as CD28 and TcR-interacting molecule, leading to the generation of PI(3, 4)P2 and PI(3,4,5)P3. PI(3, 4)P2 and PI(3,4,5)P3 in turn function as second messengers to activate a number of different signaling pathways which include the activation of PDK1 and AKT, the tec family kinase Itk, and a number of guanine nucleotide exchange factors (reviewed in references 9 and 17). Our finding that KCa3.1 activation and Ca2+ influx in activated T cells requires PI(3)P identifies a new role for 3-phosphorylated phosphoinositides in T-cell activation. Moreover, because PI(3)P is primarily generated by the class III PI3K (28), these findings suggest that the class III PI3K plays an important and unexpected role in Ca2+ influx in CD4 T cells, although we cannot rule out the possibility that PI(3)P is generated via the dephosphorylation of PI(3, 4)P2 and PI(3,4,5)P.
It is now known that KCa3.1 channel expression as well as the expression of other ion channels varies between different T-cell subsets and changes dramatically following T-cell activation (23). It is likely that the different combinations of these ion channels and differences in their mode of regulation contribute to the specific functions of different T-cell subsets by providing a means to uniquely regulate T-cell activation in various T-cell populations. With respect to KCa3.1, it has recently been shown that treatment of mice with TRAM-34, a specific inhibitor of KCa3.1, protects mice from developing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis by specifically inhibiting the production of inflammatory cytokine by activated T cells invading the spinal cord without affecting basal cytokine production in splenocytes (18). This finding suggests that antigen-specific activated T cells that upregulate KCa3.1 in vivo are uniquely dependent upon KCa3.1 for cytokine production. Future studies will determine whether MTMR6 plays a role in regulating KCa3.1 channel activity and cytokine production using in vivo models, such as experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, and to determine whether altered regulation of MTMR6 contributes to disease phenotype.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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We thank K. George Chandy (University of California, Irvine) and Heike Wulff (University of California, Davis) for Tram34 and helpful discussions.
| FOOTNOTES |
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Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://mcb.asm.org/. ![]()
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