Deletion of TRPC4 and TRPC6 in Mice Impairs Smooth Muscle Contraction and Intestinal Motility In Vivo.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Downstream effects of muscarinic receptor stimulation in intestinal smooth muscle include contraction and intestinal transit. We thought to determine whether classical transient receptor potential (TRPC) channels integrate the intracellular signaling cascades evoked by the stimulated receptors and thereby contribute to the control of the membrane potential, Ca-influx and cell responses. METHODS: We created trpc4-, trpc6- and trpc4/trpc6-gene deficient mice and analyzed them for intestinal smooth muscle function in vitro and in vivo. RESULTS: In intestinal smooth muscle cells TRPC4 forms a 55 pS cation channel and underlies >80% of the muscarinic receptor-induced cation current or mI(CAT). The residual mI(CAT) depends on the expression of TRPC6 indicating that TRPC6 and TRPC4 determine mI(CAT) channel activity independent of other channel subunits. In TRPC4-deficient ileal mocytes the carbachol-induced membrane depolarizations are greatly diminished and the atropine sensitive contraction elicited by acetylcholine release from excitatory motor neurons is greatly reduced. Additional deletion of TRPC6 aggravates these effects. Intestinal transit is slowed down in mice lacking TRPC4 and TRPC6. CONCLUSIONS: In intestinal smooth muscle cells TRPC4 and TRPC6 channels are gated by muscarinic receptors and are responsible for mI(CAT). They couple muscarinic receptors to depolarization of intestinal smooth muscle cells, voltage-activated Ca(2+)-influx and contraction and thereby accelerate small intestinal motility in vivo

Isoform-specific inhibition of TRPC4 channel by phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate.

Full-length transient receptor potential (TRP) cation channel TRPC4α and shorter TRPC4β lacking 84 amino acids in the cytosolic C terminus are expressed in smooth muscle and endothelial cells where they regulate membrane potential and Ca(2+) influx. In common with other “classical” TRPCs, TRPC4 is activated by G(q)/phospholipase C-coupled receptors, but the underlying mechanism remains elusive. Little is also known about any isoform-specific channel regulation. Here we show that TRPC4α but not TRPC4β was strongly inhibited by intracellularly applied phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP(2)). In contrast, several other phosphoinositides (PI), including PI(3,4)P(2), PI(3,5)P(2), and PI(3,4,5)P(3), had no effect or even potentiated TRPC4α indicating that PIP(2) inhibits TRPC4α in a highly selective manner. We show that PIP(2) binds to the C terminus of TRPC4α but not that of TRPC4β in vitro. Its inhibitory action was dependent on the association of TRPC4α with actin cytoskeleton as it was prevented by cytochalasin D treatment or by the deletion of the C-terminal PDZ-binding motif (Thr-Thr-Arg-Leu) that links TRPC4 to F-actin through the sodium-hydrogen exchanger regulatory factor and ezrin. PIP(2) breakdown appears to be a required step in TRPC4α channel activation as PIP(2) depletion alone was insufficient for channel opening, which additionally required Ca(2+) and pertussis toxin-sensitive G(i/o) proteins. Thus, TRPC4 channels integrate a variety of G-protein-dependent stimuli, including a PIP(2)/cytoskeleton dependence reminiscent of the TRPC4-like muscarinic agonist-activated cation channels in ileal myocytes