1 Research School of Biosciences, University of Kent at Canterbury, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NJ; and 2 School of Biosciences, University of Westminster, London W1W 6UW, United Kingdom
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ABSTRACT |
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Protein kinase C (PKC) regulation of
L-ascorbic acid transport mediated by the
Na+/ascorbic acid transporters, hSVCT1 and hSVCT2,
expressed in COS-1 cells was studied using recombinant
carboxyl-terminal V5 epitope-tagged forms of the transporters. The PKC
activator phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) caused a time-dependent
and concentration-dependent decrease (40-60%) in ascorbic acid
transport activity. Effects of PMA were not observed with the inactive
phorbol ester 4-phorbol and were reversed by treatment of the cells
with the PKC-specific inhibitor Ro-31-8220. Kinetically, the
reduction in hSVCT1 and hSVCT2 activity arose from a decrease in
maximal velocity with no change in the apparent affinity. Western blot
and confocal microscopy analyses indicated that the total pool of
hSVCT1 or hSVCT2 proteins expressed in the transfected COS-1 cells
remained unaffected by PMA treatment. For hSVCT1 the decrease in
L-ascorbic acid correlated with a redistribution of the
transporter from the cell surface to intracellular membranes. However,
for hSVCT2 there was no apparent change in transporter distribution,
suggesting that the PKC-dependent modulation of L-ascorbic
acid transport mediated by hSVCT2 was the result of reduced catalytic
transport efficiency.
vitamin C transport; human SVCT1 and SVCT2; protein kinase C; transport regulation; protein trafficking
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INTRODUCTION |
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VITAMIN C (L-ascorbate) is a required nutrient for humans, since they and other primates have lost the ability to synthesize vitamin C via the glucuronic acid pathway (16). Thus vitamin C must be obtained from the diet, cross the small intestine, and enter the plasma where it is transported to target tissues. Once it has reached the target tissues, vitamin C acts as a cofactor for several intracellular enzymes and also scavenges oxidant radicals (8, 16, 17, 24, 22). For vitamin C to act inside cells, it must be first transported across the plasma membrane, and the transport of ascorbate into mammalian cells is mediated by Na+-dependent uptake systems (12).
Recently two isoforms of the Na+-dependent vitamin C transporters (SVCTs) have been cloned from both rats and humans (see Refs. 4, 12, 19, 25, 27, 28). Expression of hSVCT1 and hSVCT2 in Xenopus laevis oocytes or HRPE or COS-1 cells resulted in uptake of ascorbate that was absolutely dependent on Na+ (4, 12, 19, 27, 28). Biochemical studies of the stoichiometry have suggested that uptake by both hSVCT1 and hSVCT2 of each ascorbate molecule (negatively charged at physiological pH) is coupled to the cotransport of two Na+, suggesting that the ascorbate uptake process should be electrogenic. Indeed, when rSVCT1 and rSVCT2 and hSVCT1 and hSVCT2 were expressed in Xenopus oocytes, ascorbic acid induced an inward, transport-associated current (25, 28). In some studies, hSVCT2 has been shown to exhibit a higher affinity for ascorbic acid than hSVCT1 (28 ± 6 vs. 78 ± 19 µM at 22°C; see Ref. 12). The two isoforms also differ in their tissue distribution, as detected by Northern blots or in situ hybridization with SVCT1 present in epithelial tissues, whereas SVCT2 is present in most tissues with the exception of lung and muscle (19, 25, 27, 28).
The deduced primary amino sequence of hSVCT1 and hSVCT2 revealed that both proteins possess five putative protein kinase C (PKC) phosphorylation sites, with hSVCT1 possessing an additional protein kinase A site (12). This result suggests that the Na+-ascorbate cotransporters may be regulated by posttranslational modification, but few studies have been conducted to investigate the regulation of ascorbic acid transport. Treatment of rabbit nonpigmented ciliary epithelial cells with phorbol 12,13-dibutyrate, an activator of PKC, resulted in the inhibition of ascorbate uptake (12). More recently, ascorbate influx in oocytes heterologously expressing either hSVCT1 or hSVCT2 was inhibited by treating the oocytes with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA; see Ref. 4). However, the mechanism by which PMA inhibited ascorbic acid transport activity was not investigated. Protein kinases can alter the activity of transporters directly, for example, a change in the substrate binding affinity or the translocation capacity, or indirectly, for example, altering the rate at which the carrier is inserted or removed from the plasma membrane (1, 3, 18, 26). In the present study, we have used a mammalian expression system, COS-1 cells, to heterologously express hSVCT1 and hSVCT2 in both the native state and with a V5 epitope tag at the carboxyl-termini. After transient transfection of the COS-1 cells, we investigated the possible role of PKC in regulating ascorbate uptake mediated by either hSVCT1 or hSVCT2. The V5 epitope was incorporated in our transport proteins to facilitate the immunodetection of hSVCT1 and hSVCT2 with anti-V5 monoclonal antibody. The PKC activator, PMA, was shown to decrease ascorbate uptake mediated by both hSVCT1 and hSVCT2, and this effect could be totally reversed by the specific PKC inhibitor Ro-31-8220. Kinetic analysis revealed that the maximum velocity (Vmax) of transport was decreased after PMA treatment with no change in the apparent affinity for transport. Confocal microscopy and cell surface biotinylation suggested that there was a corresponding reduction in the level of hSVCT1 transporter at the membrane surface consistent with the notion that PKC is regulating the trafficking of hSVCT1 to the plasma membrane. In contrast, no consistent change in the cell surface distribution of hSVCT2 was observed after PMA treatment, suggesting that the decrease in hSVCT2 transport activity results from a decrease in the translocation capacity of the carrier.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Cloning of the hSVCT1 and hSVCT2 cDNAs and their sequence
analysis.
Human SVCT1 and hSVCT2 were cloned by a RACE (rapid amplification
of cDNA ends)-PCR strategy. For hSVCT1, a human liver
Marathon-Ready (Clontech) cDNA library was used as a template for
touchdown PCR using an Advantage Taq Polymerase Kit
(ClonTech) and sense and antisense primers based on the published YSPL3
cDNA sequence (7). The PCR products were then cloned into
pGEM-T-Easy and sequenced. Based on the sequence information, 5'-RACE
was performed to obtain the 5'-untranslated region of the gene. A
nested primer set (sense, 5'-CCA TCC TAA TAC GAC TCA CTA TAG GGC-3' and
5'-ACT CAC TAT AGG GCT CGA GCG GC-3') of the human liver Marathon-Ready
cDNA library and the hSVCT1 gene-specific nested primers (antisense,
5'-GGG TGC CAA ATA TGA GAG GTG TTC AGG-3' and 5'-CAG ACT CCA GTT ACC GTA GAT CTC CTC-3') was designed. The reaction condition for the 5'-RACE PCR was 94°C for 1 min; 5 cycles of 94°C for 30 s and 74°C for 4 min; 5 cycles of 94°C for 30 s and 72°C for 4 min; 5 cycles of 94°C for 30 s and 70°C for 4 min; 25 cycles
of 94°C for 10 s and 68°C for 4 min; and 68°C for 7 min
extension. The maximum length of the 5'-untranslated region of the
hSVCT1 transcript after the library primer sequences obtained from this
adult human male liver cDNA library was 70 bases. An ~1.85-kb DNA
fragment containing the complete open reading frame and part of the
untranslated region was synthesised by PCR using 5'-CTT TGT CAA GTC ATC
CCC TCT TCT CCT C-3' starting at 56 to the first ATG codon as the forward primer (sense) and 5'-T AGA CCT TGG TGC ACA CAG ATG CAG TTT
C-3' as reverse primer (antisense). The condition of the
"touchdown" PCR was as before. A similar procedure was used to
clone the entire open reading frame of hSVCT2 from human placenta using
the gene-specific primers 5'-CAT AAG CAA ATG TAA CTC AGC-3' and 5'-GTA
AAT GTA GAT ATA CAA ACA TG-3' as the reverse primer. A 2.4-kb PCR
product was observed comprising of a 1,935-bp open reading frame plus 231 bp of 5'-untranslated region and 100 bp of 3'-untranslated region.
The hSVCT1 and hSVCT2 PCR products were subcloned into the mammalian
expression vector, pcDNA3.1/V5/His-TOPO, with an alternative stop codon
(TAA). The identities and the orientations of each of the resultant
clones were determined by restriction-analysis PCR using host bacterial
colonies and DNA sequencing. The clones were sequenced on both sense
and antisense strands by primer walking, and the reported DNA sequences
are the consensus sequence of five to eight PCR-derived clones for both
hSVCT1 (accession no. AJ250807) and hSVCT2 (accession no.
AJ292318).
Cell culture and transient transfection. Monkey kidney COS-1 cells (from the European Collection of Cell Cultures) were grown at 37°C in 95% humidified air-5% CO2 in DMEM containing 10% heat-inactivated FCS, 2 mM glutamine, and 100 International Units penicillin-streptomycin. Cells were subcultured for serial passage grown in 175-cm2 flasks and were fed every 3 days. For uptake experiments or for immunodetection of hSVCTs, cells were seeded into either 12- or 24-well plates at a density of 2 × 105 or 1 × 105 cells/well, respectively, and cultured for 24 h to an estimated 50-80% confluence. The culture medium was then replaced with 0.2-0.3 ml of FCS-free DMEM containing 1 µg of DNA and 2-5 µl of GenePorter reagent or 1 µg of DNA with 3 µl of Lipofectmine-2000. The cultures were incubated for 5 h at 37°C in 95% humidified air-5% CO2, after which 1 ml of DMEM containing 12% (vol/vol) FCS was added to each well (10% FCS final). Transport studies were performed 36-48 h posttransfection. COS-1 cells transfected with a comparable expression plasmid, pcDNA3.1/His/lacZ, were examined for transfection efficiency, and it was estimated to be at least 30%. Tranfection efficiency was not affected by coexpression studies of plasmid pcDNA3.1/hSVCT1vh or pcDNA3.1/hSVCT2vh with pcDNA3.1/His/lacZ.
Measurement of ascorbic acid transport. Influx of L-[carboxyl-14C]ascorbic acid (17.0 mCi/mmol; Amersham Pharmacia Biotech) by monolayer COS-1 cells in 24-well plates was determined at 22°C as described previously for the uptake of nucleosides and nucleobases in monolayers of mammalian cells (9). In brief, each well was washed with 1 ml of transport assay buffer (in mM: 140 NaCl, 4.2 KHCO3, 5.8 KCl, 1.3 CaCl2, 0.5 MgCl2, and 10 HEPES, pH 7.4) at 22°C after aspiration of the culture medium. The transport reactions were started by the addition of the transport assay buffer (0.2 ml) containing L-[14C]ascorbic acid and 0.1 mM dithiothreitol to prevent the oxidation of L-ascorbic acid to the cell monolayer. At 30 min [uptake was directly proportional to time over a period of 60 min, as demonstrated previously (12)], the transport buffer was aspirated, and the cell monolayer was washed immediately with 1 ml of ice-cold buffer two times. The washing procedure took 10 s for each well. The cells in each well were then lysed by addition of 0.5 ml of 0.5 N NaOH, and the amount of L-[14C]ascorbic acid was quantified by liquid scintillation spectrometry. A portion of the cell lysate (50 µl) from each well was taken for protein concentration determinations using the method of Lowry et al. (14). Kinetic values of transport [Michaelis constant (Km) and Vmax] were determined using nonlinear least squares fit programs (GraphPad Prism). Each experiment was repeated at least three times, each done in triplicate or quadruplicate.
Surface biotinylation.
Biotinylation experiments were performed as described previously
(29). COS-1 cells grown in six-well plates, and
transfected with hSVCT1vh and hSVCT2vh were incubated in the absence or
presence of PMA. The cells were then washed two times with
PBS-Ca2+-Mg2+ (in mM: 138 NaCl, 2.7 KCl, 1.5 KH2PO4, 1 MgCl2, and 1 CaCl2, pH 7.4). The surface plasma membrane proteins were
then biotinylated for 20 min at 4°C [2 ml of sulfo-NHS biotin (1 mg/ml); Pierce] in PBS-Ca2+-Mg2+ with
gentle shaking. The biotinylation solution was removed, and the cells
were washed with two washes in PBS-Ca2+-Mg2+
containing 100 mM glycine and quenched in this solution at 4°C for 45 min with gentle shaking. The cells were then lysed in 1 ml of
solubilization buffer [100 mM Tris · Cl, pH 7.4, 150 mM NaCl,
1 mM EDTA, 1% Triton X-100, 1% sodium deoxycholate, 40 µl of
protease inhibitor cocktail (Boehringer Mannheim), and 0.2 mM
phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride] at 4°C for 60 min. The cell lysates were centrifuged for 60 min at 20,000 g, 4°C. The
supernatant fractions (300 µl) were incubated with an equal volume of
monomeric avidin beads (Pierce) to separate the biotinylated proteins
from the nonbiotinylated proteins. The beads were washed three times with the solubilization buffer, and absorbed proteins eluted with SDS
sample buffer (62.5 mM Tris · Cl, pH 6.8, 2% SDS, and 100 mM
-mercaptoethanol) at 22°C for 60 min. Samples were then processed as described below for Western blot analysis.
Immunoblotting. After treatment with the appropriate drug, cells were lysed in 150 mM NaCl, 1% SDS, 10 mM EDTA, and 10 mM HEPES-Tris (pH 7.4) with protease inhibitor cocktail (Boehringer-Mannheim) and 0.2 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride. The lysate was transferred to an Eppendorf tube on ice and passed three times through a 1-ml syringe with a 21-gauge needle and mixed with Laemmli gel loading buffer containing 2% SDS at 37°C for 1 h. Protein was separated on 10% polyacrylamide gels containing 0.1% SDS. After electrotransfer to either polyvinylidene difluoride or a nitrocellulose membrane, the blots were blocked for 2 h at room temperature in 150 mM NaCl, 10 mM Tris · HCl (pH 7.4), 0.05% Tween 20, and 10% milk powder. For subsequent antibody reactions and washings, milk powder was reduced to 1%. Primary (anti-V5 mouse monoclonal; 1:1,000) antibody incubation was performed at 4°C overnight, and secondary (goat anti-mouse antibody conjugated to horseradish peroxidase; 1:5,000) antibody incubations were 1 h at room temperature. The membranes were washed three times with buffer for 10 min and visualized using the enhanced chemiluminescence (ECL) system (Amersham), and the bands were quantitated by densitometry. For quantitative Western analysis, the density of the bands must be within the linear range and not saturated. Thus the densitometry analysis was performed with at least two different protein loadings and different times of exposure to the ECL reagent to confirm that a linear response was observed. Also, standard curves were constructed to take into account any difference in transfer between hSVCT1 and hSVCT2. Selected samples were digested with N-glycosidase F (83 U/µg protein; New England Biolabs).
Confocal immunofluoresence microscopy. After culturing and treatment, transfected COS-1 cells were harvested by trypsin digestion, sedimented by centrifugation (13,000 g), and fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde for 20 min at 22°C. The cells were subsequently permeablized by the addition of 0.5% Triton X-100 for 10 min at 22°C and incubated with anti-V5 epitope monoclonal antibody mouse IgG2a (1:1,000 dilution; Invitrogen) for 1 h at 22°C or overnight at 4°C. After six washes with PBS, the cells were incubated for 1 h at 22°C with (1:1,000 in PBS) goat anti-mouse IgG conjugated with FITC (Sigma) and finally mixed with a drop of mowoil containing 10% phenylendimine and mounted on a glass slide. A Leica confocal laser scanning microscope with a ×63 lens was used to examine the COS-1 cells. A series of 10 images horizontally across each of the cells was captured and collected. Images of middle sections were used for the comparison of the effect of PMA treatment. Controls using omission of primary or secondary antibodies revealed no labeling. A minimum of 10 different cells from three separate transfection procedures and treatments was subjected to confocal analysis. The majority of the transfected cells (>85%) showed the same pattern of transporter protein distribution as that shown in Fig. 8.
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RESULTS |
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Time course of expression of hSVCT1 and hSVCT2 in transfected COS-1
cells.
Previous studies from this laboratory (12) and other works
(4, 19, 28) have demonstrated the Na+
dependence of cloned hSVCT1 and hSVCT2, but the optimum conditions for
the expression of cloned transporters had not been studied. Preliminary
experiments were thus conducted in which we monitored the enhancement
in the initial rate of Na+-dependent 10 µM ascorbic acid
transport as a function of time posttransfection. Figure
1A shows that, within 24 h, ascorbic acid transport activity in cells transfected with hSVCT1
appeared to have reached a maximum level with no further increase
observed at 48 h. In contrast, the rate of ascorbic acid transport
doubled in cells transfected with hSVCT2 between 24 and 48 h.
Ascorbic acid transport in untransfected cells or COS-1 cells
transfected with empty plasmid was similar and remained constant over
the whole 48-h period. In future experiments, mediated ascorbic acid uptake by the cloned transporters was defined as ascorbic acid uptake
in transfected cells minus uptake in nontransfected cells. Figure 1
also demonstrates that the addition of the V5 epitope to hSVCT1 and
hSVCT2 had no effect on the rate of ascorbic acid transport activity
mediated by the transport proteins. Thus, in future experiments, the V5
epitope-tagged hSVCTs were primarily used to investigate the effects of
PMA on transport activity with posttransfected cells (>36 h).
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PMA-mediated decrease in ascorbic acid transport activity.
In preliminary experiments, pretreatment of COS-1 cells transfected
with hSVCT1 and hSVCT2 with 100 nM PMA for 1 h was shown to reduce
the rate of ascorbic acid transport compared with untreated cells. The
transport rate was 46 ± 8 and 57 ± 7% of control for hSVCT1 and hSVCT2, respectively (mean ± SE of 3 experiments). A
similar level of decrease in initial rates of 10 µM ascorbic acid
transport was also observed with cells expressing V5-tagged hSVCT1 and
hSVCT2 when treated with PMA (Fig. 2).
The comparability in the response with V5-tagged and untagged proteins
suggested that the V5 epitope did not affect the PMA-induced regulation of the Na+-vitamin C transporters, and hence the V5
constructs could be reliably used to further study the regulation of
hSVCT1 and hSVCT2.
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Effect of PMA on transport kinetics and the distribution of the
transporters.
To determine whether the effects of PMA on the rate of ascorbic acid
uptake were due to a change in Vmax of transport
and/or a change in Km, the concentration
dependence of ascorbic acid uptake by transfected cells exposed to PMA
was investigated. Figure 5 shows that
transfected cells exposed to 100 nM PMA had a significant decrease in
Vmax for both hSVCT1 and hSVCT2 compared with
untreated cells (42 and 32%, respectively). There was no change in the
apparent ascorbic acid affinity (Km) for
hSVCT1vh and hSVCT2vh after treatment with PMA.
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Properties of ascorbic acid transport in untransfected COS-1 cells.
The above studies have indicated that addition of PMA decreases the
uptake of ascorbic acid by COS-1 cells expressing V5-tagged hSVCT1 or
hSVCT2. Untransfected cells also exhibit ascorbate transport (see
Fig. 1); thus, we have attempted to investigate whether this transport
is regulated in a similar manner to that of the V5-tagged SVCTs. Uptake
of mediated ascorbic acid uptake in untransfected cells was totally
dependent on the presence of extracellular Na+ (total
influx rate at 10 µM, 22°C of 5.3 ± 0.6, 0.83 ± 0.1, 0.77 ± 0.05, 0.74 ± 0.12, 1.1 ± 0.09, and 0.92 ± 0.1 pmol · mg
protein1 · min
1 in the presence of
140 mM chloride salts of Na+, K+,
Li+, Cs+, choline, and Na+ plus
excess unlabeled 1 mM ascorbic acid, respectively, mean ± SE,
n = 3). Accurate determination of the kinetic
parameters of ascorbic influx by untransfected cells was not possible,
since the rate of influx at concentrations of ascorbic acid >50 µM
was <10% of the transfected cells. Nevertheless, at a lower
concentration of ascorbic acid (10 µM), addition of 100 nM PMA
decreased ascorbic acid transport with a dose dependency (Fig. 3)
similar to that observed for hSVCT1- and hSVCT2-mediated ascorbic
acid transport. Moreover, the effect of 100 nM PMA on ascorbic acid
transport by untransfected COS-1 cells was not observed when the cells
were incubated with the inactive phorbol ester 4
-phorbol (data not shown). In addition, the effect of 100 nM PMA was blocked by the PKC
inhibitor Ro-31-8220 (500 nM; 10 µM ascorbic acid influx rates as a percentage of control untreated cells of 74 ± 10, 93 ± 6, and 101 ± 5 for PMA-treated, PMA- plus
Ro-31-8220-treated, and Ro-31-8220-treated untransfected
COS-1 cells).
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DISCUSSION |
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The aim of the present study was to investigate and compare the regulation of hSVCT1 and hSVCT2 expressed in the mammalian cell line COS-1. Our studies suggest that short-term activation of PKC by the addition of PMA to transfected cells expressing either V5-tagged-hSVCT1 or -hSVCT2 decreases the uptake of ascorbic acid. The mechanism by which PKC decreases the influx of ascorbic acid mediated by the SVCT transporters appears to be isoform specific and for hSVCT1 is most likely by altering cell surface trafficking of the transporter.
PMA, a compound widely used to activate PKC, markedly decreased the
uptake of [14C]ascorbic acid by hSVCT1 and hSVCT2
expressed in COS-1 cells. At a maximally effective concentration (100 nM), extracellularly applied PMA decreased the apparent
Vmax without changing the
Km value for ascorbic acid-mediated uptake by
hSVCT1 and hSVCT2. Both transporters were similarly affected with a
30-40% decrease in Vmax. In contrast,
4-phorbol, an inactive analog of PMA, had no effect on ascorbic acid
transport activity, indicating that the response elicited by PMA was
specific for the phorbol ester and suggesting that PKC activation is
required. The reversal of the PMA-induced inhibition of ascorbic acid
uptake by the highly specific PKC inhibitor Ro-31-8220 provided
additional evidence that PKC must play a role either directly or
indirectly in the regulation of hSVCTs. Basal SVCT transporters in
COS-1 cells also appear to be regulated by PKC; thus, our findings with
transfected cells may have general applicability to cells expressing
SVCTs. Multiple isoforms of PKC exist that can be classified into three distinct groups on the basis of structural and regulatory differences (15). Within COS cells, conventional PKCs (
,
I, and
II), novel PKCs (
), and atypical PKCs (
) have been shown to be
expressed (23, 24). Which of these isoforms is involved in
inhibiting ascorbic acid transport is unknown, although the atypical
PKCs can be eliminated since they do not respond to phorbol esters (15). Protein kinase D (PKD), a kinase that is also
stimulated by phorbol esters, is unlikely to play a role in the
inhibition of ascorbic transport since COS-7 cells do not express PKD
(24). The reason why the magnitude of the PMA inhibitory
effect is incomplete, i.e., at 40%, is unknown, but it is interesting
to note that a number of other transport systems are similarly
inhibited upon exposure to PMA (5, 10, 30). This possibly
suggests that additional signals remain to be discovered that will
cause a complete loss in transport activity.
Inhibition of transport activity is commonly observed when modulation of the activity of other carriers by PKC has been investigated. For example, the human dopamine transporter, Na+-glucose cotransporters, and a mouse taurine carrier when expressed in Xenopus oocytes all exhibited diminished activity upon exposure to PMA (10, 13, 30). In all cases, PMA altered the Vmax of the transporter of interest, and this was also observed in the present study with hSVCT1 and hSVCT2. In the case of hSVCT1, this decrease in ascorbic acid Vmax appears to be the result of a significant proportion of transporter no longer present at the membrane after PMA treatment, as revealed from the surface biotinylation studies and the confocal images. In transfected control cells, hSVCT1vh was predominately located intracellularly (88% of the total) and existed in the following two forms: a 70-kDa form that may represent the unglycosylated form of the carrier and an 80- to 100-kDa form that is glycosylated. Both forms of hSVCT1vh were also present on the cell surface, and their amount on the surface was reduced significantly after PMA treatment from ~12% of the total to ~5% (see Fig. 7). The total level of hSVCT1vh from the immunoblot assays remains unaltered by PMA treatment. Taken together, these results support the notion that PKC regulation of ascorbic acid uptake mediated by hSVCT1 is largely via membrane trafficking to and/or from the plasma membrane. A similar mechanism has been proposed for the decrease in dopamine, serotonin, taurine, and glucose transport after expression of the specific transporters in either oocytes or mammalian cells and PKC activation (10, 13, 18, 30). Further studies will be required to determine whether reduced insertion in or increased removal from the plasma membrane follows PKC activation to account for the net loss of surface hSVCT1.
In the case of hSVCT2, the reduced transport activity after PMA treatment does not appear to be accounted for by a change in the cell surface distribution of the transporter. As was the case for hSVCT1, the majority (~88%) of hSVCT2 in COS-1 transfected cells appeared to be located intracellularly. Nevertheless, immunoblots demonstrated that both the total level and the cell surface fraction of hSVCT2vh remained unaltered by exposure to PMA. Although the confocal studies tended to suggest that the labeling of the cell surface hSVCT2vh was less pronounced after PMA treatment, there was no clear increase in intracellular labeling. Thus we propose that PKC stimulation results in a change in the activity of a constant number of hSVCT2 transporters at the plasma membrane. We have no evidence to suggest an irreversible loss of transporter protein via degradation.
The finding that the majority of the hSVCT1 and hSVCT2 (~85%) is localized in an intracellular compartment might reflect the use of transiently transfected cells leading to an overexpression of the transporters. Nevertheless, other transporters have also been observed to exhibit a similar distribution, for example the Na+-exchanger isoform (NHE3; see Ref. 2). Further studies with isoform-specific antibodies to hSVCTs will be required to examine the cellular distribution of endogenously expressed vitamin C transporters.
Analysis of the amino acid sequence of hSVCT1 and hSVCT2 reveals two potential N-glycosylation sites between the putative transmembrane 3 and 4 domains, with an additional site between transmembrane 5 and 6 domains in hSVCT1 (12). The present results confirm that both hSVCT1vh and hSVCT2vh, when expressed in COS-1 cells, are glycoproteins containing N-linked oligosaccharides that migrate on SDS-polyacrylamide gels as broad bands. The broadness of the bands suggests heterogeneous glycosylation, and treatment with N-glycosidase F resulted in a sharping of the bands on SDS-polyacrylamide gels and a corresponding shift to lower apparent relative molecular mass regions of the gel (Fig. 6). The difference in the relative molecular mass of hSVCT1vh and hSVCT2vh in both their native and deglycosylated forms is primarily due to the difference in the polypeptide length of the two isoforms. The pattern of glycosylation may also play a contributing role, and site-directed mutagenesis experiments are currently being planned to locate the sites of glycosylation.
The mechanism by which PKC causes a decrease in the transport activity
of both hSVCT1 and -2 is unknown. Both transporters possess conserved
phosphorylation sites for PKC (12), raising the
possibility that the direct phosphorylation of the transporters results
in the redistribution of hSVCT1 and changes in the conformation of
hSVCT2 that affect its transport activity. For example, it has been
hypothesized that direct phosphorylation of the serotonin transporter
by PKC serves as a tag that identifies transporters to be internalized
(20). In contrast, tryosine phosphorylation of the
-aminobutyric acid transporter GAT1 decreases the rate of
transporter internalization, leading to an upregulation in transport
activity (11). An alternative explanation is that other
PKC-sensitive proteins may be mediating the trafficking of hSVCT1 and
the activity of hSVCT2. Further studies will be required to
differentiate between these possibilities.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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This work was supported by grants from the Medical Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). D. Johnson was the recipient of a doctorial studentship from the BBSRC.
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FOOTNOTES |
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Current address for S. Jarvis: School of Biosciences, University of Westminster, 115 New Cavendish St., London W1W 6UW, UK.
Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: S.M. Jarvis, School of Biosciences, University of Westminster, 115 New Cavendish St., London W1W 6UW, UK (E-mail: S.M.Jarvis{at}westminster.ac.uk).
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. The article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
July 24, 2002;10.1152/ajpcell.00461.2001
Received 21 March 2001; accepted in final form 17 July 2002.
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