Na+ pump inhibition and non-selective cation channel activation by cyanide and anoxia in guinea-pig chromaffin cells

Hypoxia and metabolic inhibition with cyanide (CN) evoke catecholamine secretion in adrenal chromaffin cells through depolarization. We elucidated mechanisms for a CN- or anoxia-induced inward (depolarization) current, using the perforated patch method.Bath application of Ba2+ induced a dose-dependent inhibition of a muscarine-induced current (IMUS) and part of the CN-induced current (ICN) with an IC50 (concentration responsible for 50 % inhibition) of 1.3 mM. The Ba2+-sensitive component was estimated to comprise 58 % of the total ICN.The Ba2+-resistant component of ICN tended to increase with shifts of membrane potential from -40 to 40 mV and was markedly suppressed by exposure to a K+-free solution or 200 μm ouabain, indicating that the majority of the Ba2+-resistant component of ICN is due to suppression of the Na+ pump current (Ipump).The non-Ipump component of ICN diminished progressively in K+-free solution. Substitution of glucose for sucrose in a K+-free CN solution further diminished the CN potency to produce the non-Ipump component.The I-V relationship for the non-Ipump component of ICN had a reversal potential of -3 and -47 mV at 147 and 5.5 mM Na+, respectively, and showed an outward rectification, indicating that the non-Ipump component of ICN is due to activation of non-selective cation channels.Exposure to anoxia induced a current with an amplitude comparable to that of ICN, and the anoxia-induced current apparently occluded development of ICN. The anoxia-induced current diminished by ca 60 % in the absence of K+ and reversed polarity at 5 mV under K+-free conditions.It is concluded that exposure to CN and to anoxia induces suppression of the Na+ pump and activation of non-selective cation channels, probably due to an ATP decrease resulting mainly from consumption by the Na+ pump

Role of ATP decrease in secretion induced by mitochondrial dysfunction in guinea-pig adrenal chromaffin cells

The mechanism related to mitochondrial dysfunction-induced catecholamine (CA) secretion in dispersed guinea-pig adrenal chromaffin cells was investigated using amperometry and confocal laser microscopy. Application of CCCP, which does not stimulate generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), reversibly induced CA secretion, whereas application of either cyanide or oligomycin (OL), a stimulator for ROS, enhanced CA secretion to a smaller extent. The CCCP-induced secretion was abolished by removal of external Ca2+ ions and was markedly diminished by D600. The mitochondrial membrane potential, measured using rhodamine 123, was rapidly lost in response to CCCP, but did not change noticeably during a 3 min exposure to OL. Prior exposure to OL markedly facilitated depolarization of the mitochondrial membrane potential in response to cyanide. The mitochondrial inhibitors rapidly produced an increase in Magnesium Green (MgG) fluorescence in the absence of external Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions, an increase that was larger in the cytoplasm than in the nucleus. The rank order of potency in increasing MgG fluorescence among the inhibitors was similar to that in increasing secretion. Thus, mitochondrial inhibition rapidly decreases [ATP] and the mitochondrial dysfunction-induced secretion is not due to ROS generation or to mitochondrial depolarization, but is possibly mediated by a decrease in ATP