AJP - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, Vol 267, Issue 1 119-G128, Copyright © 1994 by American Physiological Society

ARTICLES

Identification of Na+/H+ exchange on the apical side of surface colonocytes using BCECF

G. G. King, W. E. Lohrmann, J. W. Ickes Jr and G. M. Feldman
Department of Medicine, McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Richmond 23249.

Colonocytes must regulate intracellular pH (pHi) while they transport H+ and HCO3-. To investigate the membrane transport processes involved in pHi regulation, colonocyte pHi was measured with 2,'7'-bis(2-carboxyethyl)-5(6)-carboxyfluorescein (BCECF) in intact segments of rat distal colon mounted on a holder that fits into a standard fluorometer cuvette and allows independent superfusion of mucosal and serosal surfaces. When NCECF-acetoxymethyl ester was in the mucosal solution only, BCECF loaded surface colonocytes with a high degree of selectivity. In HEPES-buffered solutions, basal pHi was 7.31 +/- 0.01 (n = 68), and pHi was dependent on extracellular Na+. Cells acidified in Na(+)-free solution, and pHi rapidly corrected when Na+ was returned. pHi recovered at 0.22 +/- 0.01 pH/min (n = 6) when Na+ was introduced into the mucosal solution and at 0.02 +/- 0.01 pH/min (n = 7) when Na+ was absent from the mucosal solution. The presence or absence of Na+ in the serosal solution did not affect pHi. This indicated that the Na(+)-dependent pHi recovery process is located in the apical cell membrane, but not in the basolateral membrane. Because amiloride (1 mM) inhibited Na(+)-dependent pHi recovery by 75%, Na+/H+ exchange appears to be present in the apical membrane. Because Na(+)-independent pHi recovery was not affected by K(+)-free media, 50 microM SCH-28080, 100 nM bafilomycin A1, or Cl(-)-free media, this transport mechanism does not involve a gastriclike H(+)-K(+)-ATPase, a vacuolar H(+)-ATPase, or a Cl-/base exchanger. In summary, pHi was selectively measured in surface colonocytes by this technique. In these cells, the Na+/H+ exchange activity involved in pHi regulation was detected in the apical membrane, but not in the basolateral membrane.

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