Electrophysiological, mechanosensitive responses of Xenopus laevis oocytes to direct, isotonic increase in intracellular volume.

An intra-oocyte injection method for obtaining the electrophysiological response of follicle-enclosed Xenopus laevis oocytes to an increase in intracellular volume (i.e. stretch) without changing the extracellular medium is described.

Toxic effect of the beta-amyloid precursor protein C-terminus fragment and Na+/Ca2+ gradients.

There is evidence to suggest that certain metabolic fragments of the beta-amyloid precursor protein (betaAPP) containing the whole of the beta-amyloid (Abeta) sequence are toxic to cells. We showed previously that the 105-amino acid C-terminal peptide (CT105) fragment, incorporating Abeta, is particularly toxic to Xenopus oocytes as well as to mammalian neurons. Here, we investigated the contributions of Na+ and Ca2+ gradients to intracellular CT105-induced toxicity in oocytes, monitored by measuring the membrane resting potential.

Dual role of ATP in supporting volume-regulated chloride channels in mouse fibroblasts.

The effects of inhibitors of protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) on the Cl(-) current (I(Cl(vol))) through volume-regulated anion/chloride (VRAC) channels whilst manipulating cellular ATP have been studied in mouse fibroblasts using the whole-cell patch clamp technique. Removal of ATP from the pipette-filling solution prevented activation of the current during osmotic cell swelling and when the volume of patched cells was increased by the application of positive pressure through the patch pipette to achieve rates exceeding 100%/min. Equimolar substitution of ATP in the pipette solution with its non-hydrolyzable analogs, adenosine 5'-O-(3-thiotriphosphate) (ATPgammaS) or adenylyl-(beta,gamma-methylene)-diphosphonate (AMP-PCP), not only supported activation of the current but also maintained its amplitude.

A functional spliced-variant of beta 2 subunit of Kv1 channels in C6 glioma cells and reactive astrocytes from rat lesioned cerebellum.

Voltage-gated K(+) channels (Kv1) are important in glia, being required for cell proliferation. Herein, reactive astrocytes from a rat cerebellar lesion were shown to contain Kv1.1, -1.

Protein phosphotyrosine phosphatase inhibitors suppress regulatory volume decrease and the volume-sensitive Cl- conductance in mouse fibroblasts.

The effects of the protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) inhibitors, pervanadate, monoperoxo(picolinato)- oxo-vanadate(V) [mpV(pic)] and dephostatin, on regulatory volume decrease (RVD) and the volume-sensitive Cl- current in mouse L-fibroblasts were studied with the aid of video microscopy and the whole-cell patch-clamp technique. The RVD induced by the hyposmotic shift from 300 to 150 mosmol/l, was strongly suppressed in cells that had been pre-incubated in pervanadate (25 microM) or in mpV(pic) (10 microM), or subjected to extracellular application of dephostatin (20 microM). The acceleration in RVD caused by gramicidin (0.