Sympathetic nerve-derived ATP regulates renal medullary vasa recta diameter via pericyte cells: a role for regulating medullary blood flow?

Pericyte cells are now known to be a novel locus of blood flow control, being able to regulate capillary diameter via their unique morphology and expression of contractile proteins. We have previously shown that exogenous ATP causes constriction of vasa recta via renal pericytes, acting at a variety of membrane bound P2 receptors on descending vasa recta (DVR), and therefore may be able to regulate medullary blood flow (MBF). Regulation of MBF is essential for appropriate urine concentration and providing essential oxygen and nutrients to this region of high, and variable, metabolic demand. Various sources of endogenous ATP have been proposed, including from epithelial, endothelial, and red blood cells in response to stimuli such as mechanical stimulation, local acidosis, hypoxia, and exposure to various hormones. Extensive sympathetic innervation of the nephron has previously been shown, however the innervation reported has focused around the proximal and distal tubules, and ascending loop of Henle. We hypothesize that sympathetic nerves are an additional source of ATP acting at renal pericytes and therefore regulate MBF. Using a rat live kidney slice model in combination with video imaging and confocal microscopy techniques we firstly show sympathetic nerves in close proximity to vasa recta pericytes in both the outer and inner medulla. Secondly, we demonstrate pharmacological stimulation of sympathetic nerves in situ (by tyramine) evokes pericyte-mediated vasoconstriction of vasa recta capillaries; inhibited by the application of the P2 receptor antagonist suramin. Lastly, tyramine-evoked vasoconstriction of vasa recta by pericytes is significantly less than ATP-evoked vasoconstriction. Sympathetic innervation may provide an additional level of functional regulation in the renal medulla that is highly localized. It now needs to be determined under which physiological/pathophysiological circumstances that sympathetic innervation of renal pericytes is important

Urinary ATP and visualization of intracellular bacteria: a superior diagnostic marker for recurrent UTI in renal transplant recipients?

Renal transplant recipients (RTR) are highly susceptible to urinary tract infections (UTIs) with over 50% of patients having at least one UTI within the first year. Yet it is generally acknowledged that there is considerable insensitivity and inaccuracy in routine urinalysis when screening for UTIs. Thus a large number of transplant patients with genuine urine infections may go undiagnosed and develop chronic recalcitrant infections, which can be associated with graft loss and morbidity. Given a recent study demonstrating ATP is released by urothelial cells in response to bacteria exposure, possibly acting at metabotropic P2Y receptors mediating a proinflammatory response, we have investigated alternative, and possibly more appropriate, urinalysis techniques in a cohort of RTRs.Mid-stream urine (MSU) samples were collected from 53 outpatient RTRs. Conventional leukocyte esterase and nitrite dipstick tests, and microscopic pyuria counts (in 1 ?l), ATP concentration measurements, and identification of intracellular bacteria in shed urothelial cells, were performed on fresh unspun samples and compared to ‘gold-standard’ bacterial culture results.Of the 53 RTRs, 22% were deemed to have a UTI by ‘gold-standard’ conventional bacteria culture, whereas 87%, 8% and 4% showed evidence of UTIs according to leukocyte esterase dipstick, nitrite dipstick, and a combination of both dipsticks, respectively. Intracellular bacteria were visualized in shed urothelial cells of 44% of RTRs, however only 1 of the 23 RTRs (44%) was deemed to have a UTI by conventional bacteria culture. A significant association of the ‘gold-standard’ test with urinary ATP concentration combined with visualization of intracellular bacteria in shed urothelial cells was determined using the Fisher’s exact test.It is apparent that standard bedside tests for UTIs give variable results and that seemingly quiescent bacteria in urothelial cells are very common in RTRs and may represent a focus of subclinical infection. Furthermore, our results suggest urinary ATP concentration combined with detection of intracellular bacteria in shed urinary epithelial cells may be a sensitive means by which to detect ‘occult’ infection in RTRs

Altered urothelial ATP signaling in a major subset of human overactive bladder patients with pyuria

Overactive Bladder (OAB) is an idiopathic condition, characterized by urgency, urinary frequency, and urgency incontinence, in the absence of routinely traceable urinary infection. We have described microscopic pyuria (≥10 wbc/μl) in patients suffering from the worst symptoms. It is established that inflammation is associated with increased ATP release from epithelial cells, and extracellular ATP originating from the urothelium following increased hydrostatic pressure is a mediator of bladder sensation. Here, using bladder biopsy samples, we have investigated urothelial ATP signaling in OAB patients with microscopic pyuria. Basal, but not stretch-evoked, release of ATP was significantly greater from the urothelium of OAB patients with pyuria than from non-OAB patients or OAB patients without pyuria (<10 wbc/μl). Basal ATP release from the urothelium of OAB patients with pyuria was inhibited by the P2 receptor antagonist suramin and abolished by the hemichannel blocker carbenoxolone, which differed from stretch-activated ATP release. Altered P2 receptor expression was evident in the urothelium from pyuric OAB patients. Furthermore, intracellular bacteria were visualized in shed urothelial cells from ∼80% of OAB patients with pyuria. These data suggest that increased ATP release from the urothelium, involving bacterial colonization, may play a role in the heightened symptoms associated with pyuric OAB patients

Simultaneous quantification of 12 different nucleotides and nucleosides released from renal epithelium and in human urine samples using ion-pair reversed-phase HPLC

Nucleotides and nucleosides are not only involved in cellular metabolism but also act extracellularly via P1 and P2 receptors, to elicit a wide variety of physiological and pathophysiological responses through paracrine and autocrine signalling pathways. For the first time, we have used an ion-pair reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography ultraviolet (UV)-coupled method to rapidly and simultaneously quantify 12 different nucleotides and nucleosides (adenosine triphosphate, adenosine diphosphate, adenosine monophosphate, adenosine, uridine triphosphate, uridine diphosphate, uridine monophosphate, uridine, guanosine triphosphate, guanosine diphosphate, guanosine monophosphate, guanosine): (1) released from a mouse renal cell line (M1 cortical collecting duct) and (2) in human biological samples (i.e., urine). To facilitate analysis of urine samples, a solid-phase extraction step was incorporated (overall recovery rate ? 98 %). All samples were analyzed following injection (100 ?l) into a Synergi Polar-RP 80 Å (250 × 4.6 mm) reversed-phase column with a particle size of 10 ?m, protected with a guard column. A gradient elution profile was run with a mobile phase (phosphate buffer plus ion-pairing agent tetrabutylammonium hydrogen sulfate; pH 6) in 2-30 % acetonitrile (v/v) for 35 min (including equilibration time) at 1 ml min(-1) flow rate. Eluted compounds were detected by UV absorbance at 254 nm and quantified using standard curves for nucleotide and nucleoside mixtures of known concentration. Following validation (specificity, linearity, limits of detection and quantitation, system precision, accuracy, and intermediate precision parameters), this protocol was successfully and reproducibly used to quantify picomolar to nanomolar concentrations of nucleosides and nucleotides in isotonic and hypotonic cell buffers that transiently bathed M1 cells, and urine samples from normal subjects and overactive bladder patients

Altered urothelial ATP signaling in a major subset of human overactive bladder patients with pyuria

Overactive Bladder (OAB) is an idiopathic condition, characterized by urgency, urinary frequency, and urgency incontinence, in the absence of routinely traceable urinary infection. We have described microscopic pyuria (?10 wbc/?l) in patients suffering from the worst symptoms. It is established that inflammation is associated with increased ATP release from epithelial cells, and extracellular ATP originating from the urothelium following increased hydrostatic pressure is a mediator of bladder sensation. Here, using bladder biopsy samples, we have investigated urothelial ATP signaling in OAB patients with microscopic pyuria. Basal, but not stretch-evoked, release of ATP was significantly greater from the urothelium of OAB patients with pyuria than from non-OAB patients or OAB patients without pyuria (<10 wbc/?l). Basal ATP release from the urothelium of OAB patients with pyuria was inhibited by the P2 receptor antagonist suramin and abolished by the hemichannel blocker carbenoxolone, which differed from stretch-activated ATP release. Altered P2 receptor expression was evident in the urothelium from pyuric OAB patients. Furthermore, intracellular bacteria were visualized in shed urothelial cells from ?80% of OAB patients with pyuria. These data suggest that increased ATP release from the urothelium, involving bacterial colonization, may play a role in the heightened symptoms associated with pyuric OAB patients

Generation of a Homozygous Transgenic Rat Strain Stably Expressing a Calcium Sensor Protein for Direct Examination of Calcium Signaling

In drug discovery, prediction of selectivity and toxicity require the evaluation of cellular calcium homeostasis. The rat is a preferred laboratory animal for pharmacology and toxicology studies, while currently no calcium indicator protein expressing rat model is available. We established a transgenic rat strain stably expressing the GCaMP2 fluorescent calcium sensor by a transposon-based methodology. Zygotes were co-injected with mRNA of transposase and a CAG- GCaMP2 expressing construct, and animals with one transgene copy were pre-selected by measuring fluorescence in blood cells. A homozygous rat strain was generated with high sensor protein expression in the heart, kidney, liver, and blood cells. No pathological alterations were found in these animals, and fluorescence measurements in cardiac tissue slices and primary cultures demonstrated the applicability of this system for studying calcium signaling. We show here that the GCaMP2 expressing rat cardiomyocytes allow the prediction of cardiotoxic drug side-effects, and provide evidence for the role of Na+/Ca2+ exchanger and its beneficial pharmacological modulation in cardiac reperfusion. Our data indicate that drug-induced alterations and pathological processes can be followed by using this rat model, suggesting that transgenic rats expressing a calcium-sensitive protein provide a valuable system for pharmacological and toxicological studies

Renal pericytes: regulators of medullary blood flow

Regulation of medullary blood flow (MBF) is essential in maintaining normal kidney function. Blood flow to the medulla is supplied by the descending vasa recta (DVR), which arise from the efferent arterioles of juxtamedullary glomeruli. DVR are composed of a continuous endothelium, intercalated with smooth muscle-like cells called pericytes. Pericytes have been shown to alter the diameter of isolated and in situ DVR in response to vasoactive stimuli that are transmitted via a network of autocrine and paracrine signalling pathways. Vasoactive stimuli can be released by neighbouring tubular epithelial, endothelial, red blood cells and neuronal cells in response to changes in NaCl transport and oxygen tension. The experimentally described sensitivity of pericytes to these stimuli strongly suggests their leading role in the phenomenon of MBF autoregulation. Because the debate on autoregulation of MBF fervently continues, we discuss the evidence favouring a physiological role for pericytes in the regulation of MBF and describe their potential role in tubulo-vascular cross-talk in this region of the kidney. Our review also considers current methods used to explore pericyte activity and function in the renal medulla

The energy use associated with neural computation in the cerebellum

The brain's energy supply determines its information processing power, and generates functional imaging signals, which are often assumed to reflect principal neuron spiking. Using measured cellular properties, we analysed how energy expenditure relates to neural computation in the cerebellar cortex. Most energy is used on information processing by non-principal neurons: Purkinje cells use only 18% of the signalling energy. Excitatory neurons use 73% and inhibitory neurons 27% of the energy. Despite markedly different computational architectures, the granular and molecular layers consume approximately the same energy. The blood vessel area supplying glucose and O2 is spatially matched to energy consumption. The energy cost of storing motor information in the cerebellum was also estimated

Emerging key roles for P2X receptors in the kidney

P2X ionotropic non-selective cation channels are expressed throughout the kidney and are activated in a paracrine or autocrine manner following the binding of extracellular ATP and related extracellular nucleotides. Whilst there is a wealth of literature describing a regulatory role of P2 receptors (P2R) in the kidney, there are significantly less data on the regulatory role of P2X receptors (P2XR) compared with that described for metabotropic P2Y. Much of the historical literature describing a role for P2XR in the kidney has focused heavily on the role of P2X1R in the autoregulation of renal blood flow. More recently, however, there has been a plethora of manuscripts providing compelling evidence for additional roles for P2XR in both kidney health and disease. This review summarizes the current evidence for the involvement of P2XR in the regulation of renal tubular and vascular function, and highlights the novel data describing their putative roles in regulating physiological and pathophysiological processes in the kidney

Sympathetic nerve-derived ATP regulates renal medullary vasa recta diameter via pericyte cells: a role for regulating medullary blood flow?

Pericyte cells are now known to be a novel locus of blood flow control, being able to regulate capillary diameter via their unique morphology and expression of contractile proteins. We have previously shown that exogenous ATP causes constriction of vasa recta via renal pericytes, acting at a variety of membrane bound P2 receptors on descending vasa recta (DVR), and therefore may be able to regulate medullary blood flow (MBF). Regulation of MBF is essential for appropriate urine concentration and providing essential oxygen and nutrients to this region of high, and variable, metabolic demand. Various sources of endogenous ATP have been proposed, including from epithelial, endothelial, and red blood cells in response to stimuli such as mechanical stimulation, local acidosis, hypoxia, and exposure to various hormones. Extensive sympathetic innervation of the nephron has previously been shown, however the innervation reported has focused around the proximal and distal tubules, and ascending loop of Henle. We hypothesize that sympathetic nerves are an additional source of ATP acting at renal pericytes and therefore regulate MBF. Using a rat live kidney slice model in combination with video imaging and confocal microscopy techniques we firstly show sympathetic nerves in close proximity to vasa recta pericytes in both the outer and inner medulla. Secondly, we demonstrate pharmacological stimulation of sympathetic nerves in situ (by tyramine) evokes pericyte-mediated vasoconstriction of vasa recta capillaries; inhibited by the application of the P2 receptor antagonist suramin. Lastly, tyramine-evoked vasoconstriction of vasa recta by pericytes is significantly less than ATP-evoked vasoconstriction. Sympathetic innervation may provide an additional level of functional regulation in the renal medulla that is highly localized. It now needs to be determined under which physiological/pathophysiological circumstances that sympathetic innervation of renal pericytes is important