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J S Handler

Publications and source records attributed to J S Handler.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Transport in cultured epithelia.

Recent progress in studying epithelia in culture indicates that techniques already available and applied to naturally occurring epithelia can be applied effectively to cultured epithelia. Studies using this approach are summarized as well as new information the studies have yielded regarding the mechanism of action of aldosterone and the regulation of expression of the sodium-coupled hexose transporter. In addition, special features of cultured epithelia should lead to new approaches to understanding epithelial biology as well as epithelial transport.

Aldosterone↗

Factors affecting the differentiation of epithelial transport and responsiveness to hormones.

Under standard culture conditions, epithelial cells grow with their basal surface attached to the culture dish and their apical surface facing the medium. Morphological and functional markers are located in the appropriate plasma membrane, and transepithelial transport occurs in a variety of cultured epithelia. As a result of the polarity of the cells and the presence of tight junctions between cells, on standard tissue culture dishes there is restricted access of growth medium to the basolateral surface of the epithelium, which is the surface at which nutrient exchange normally occurs. Greater differentiation of epithelial cultures can be achieved by growing primary cultures or continuous cell lines on permeable surfaces such as porous bottom cultures dishes in which the porous bottom is formed by a filter or membrane of collagen, or on floating collagen gels. In many cultures, differentiation varies with the time after the culture was seeded. Certain chemicals that accelerate differentiation in nonepithelial cells also accelerate the differentiation of epithelial cultures. Ultimately, defined media and specific substrates for cell attachment should lead to further differentiation of epithelia in culture.

3',5'-Cyclic-AMP Phosphodiesterases↗

Hexose regulation of sodium-hexose transport in LLC-PK1 epithelia: the nature of the signal.

We have shown previously that the concentration of glucose in the growth medium regulates sodium-coupled hexose transport in epithelia formed by the porcine renal cell line LLC-PK1. Assayed in physiological salt solution, the ratio of the concentration of alpha-methyl glucoside (AMG) accumulated inside the cell at steady state to its concentration outside, and the number of glucose transporters, as measured by phlorizin binding, was inversely related to the glucose concentration in the growth medium. In this study, using a cloned line of LLC-PK1 cells, we provide evidence that the difference in AMG concentrating capacity is the result of a regulatory signal and not simply due to a selection process where the growth of cells with enhanced glucose transport is favored by low glucose medium or vice-versa. By adding glucose to conditioned medium (collected after 48 hr incubation with cells and therefore containing less than 0.1 mM glucose), we demonstrate that the signal in the growth medium is indeed the concentration of glucose rather than another factor secreted into or depleted from the medium. Fructose and mannose, two sugars not transported by the sodium-dependent glucose transporter, can substitute for glucose as a carbohydrate source in the growth medium and have a modest glucose-like effect on the transporter. Growth in medium containing AMG does not affect the transporter, indicating that the regulatory signal is not a direct effect of the hexose on its carrier but involves hexose metabolism.

Animals↗

Regulation of sodium-coupled glucose transport by glucose in a cultured epithelium.

Cultured porcine kidney cells (LLC-PK1) form polarized epithelia that transport glucose from apical to basal surface as in the renal proximal tube. The ability of these cells to transport glucose is known to increase as the epithelium forms and matures in culture. We find that epithelia grown in medium containing 25 mM glucose have reduced hexose transport compared to epithelia grown in 5 mM glucose. This difference is not the result of differences in seeding efficiency and can be reversed by changing the concentration of glucose in the growth medium. Increased transport in epithelia grown in 5 mM glucose is the result of increased influx on the sodium-coupled apical membrane transporter rather than changes in efflux. This difference is apparently the result of more apical membrane transporters in epithelia grown in 5 mM glucose. The number of high affinity phlorizin-binding sites is greater in epithelia grown in 5 mM glucose (about 0.8 pmol/10(6) cells) than in 25 mM glucose (about 0.25 pmol/10(6) cells). The increase in the number of glucose transporters induced by the low glucose medium is specific in that there is not a comparable change in activity of marker enzymes (alkaline phosphatase, acid phosphatase, or glucose 6-phosphatase). The nature of the intracellular signal elicited by extracellular glucose remains to be determined.

Animals↗

Use of cultured epithelia to study transport and its regulation.

Epithelial cells from a variety of species and organs form polarized epithelia in culture. When epithelia are grown on a porous surface, such as a millipore filter, transport can be studied using adaptations of standard techniques. In the few years in which cultured epithelia have been studied by transport physiologists, most work has been focused on identification and description of the differentiated transport exhibited by cultured epithelia. Epithelia formed by a continuous line of cells derived from pig kidney (LLC-PK1) exhibit sodium-coupled glucose transport similar to that of the proximal tubule and have vasopressin-sensitive adenylate cyclase that has been studied in great detail. Also of interest are epithelia formed by continuous lines of cells derived from amphibian kidney (A6) and from amphibian urinary bladder (TBM). Each line forms epithelia that have high electrical resistance and amiloride-sensitive sodium transport. Transport is stimulated by aldosterone and by cAMP or hormones that raise cell cAMP levels. In LLC-PK1 and in A6 epithelia, transport and the response to hormones can be manipulated by manipulating the culture conditions. Cultured epithelia have also been used to explore the cell biology of epithelia. Most interesting in this regard are studies of the development and maintenance of epithelial cell polarity. This approach should be especially valuable.

Aldosterone↗

Osteology of a slave burial population from Barbados, West Indies.

A unique seventeenth-nineteenth century slave cemetery population from Newton plantation, Barbados, allows examination of craniodental characters in relation to ethnohistorical data. Age-at-death estimates suggest life expectancy at birth of 29 years and low infant mortality; historical demography, however, suggests life expectancy of 20 years and very high infant mortality. Tooth decay, bilateral tooth loss, periodontal disease, root hypercementosis, and severe enamel hypoplasia are high in frequency. The teeth yield evidence of such cultural practices as pipe-smoking and incisor mutilation. Several skeletal features reflect periodic near-starvation. Directional and fluctuating dental asymmetry, relative tooth size, and hypoplasia distribution suggest slaves experienced considerable weaning trauma; metabolic stress at this time exceeded that of prenatal and immediate postnatal periods. Odontometrics and dental and cranial nonmetric traits indicate that modern Blacks are intermediate between the ancestral slaves and modern Whites but more similar to the latter, suggesting effects of environmental covariance exceed those of genetic admixture. Nonmetric trait distributions show nonrandom patterns according to area of burial in the cemetery, a possible result of family segregation.

Adolescent↗

Na+-dependent hexose transport in vesicles from cultured renal epithelial cell line.

Apical membrane vesicles were prepared from cultured epithelia formed by LLC-PK1 cells using a calcium precipitation technique. alpha-Methylglucoside uptake into this vesicle preparation was markedly stimulated by sodium and inhibited by phlorizin. In addition, a transient "overshoot" of intravesicular alpha-methylglucoside concentration above its equilibrium value was observed under initial sodium gradient conditions. The specificity of this sodium-dependent hexose transporter closely resembled that found in the mammalian kidney brush border membrane, e.g., alpha-methylglucoside, D-glucose, and D-galactose apparently share the transporter while 2-deoxy-D-glucose, mannose, and fructose do not. Kinetic analysis of the sodium-dependent component of alpha-methylglucoside flux into LLC-PK1 apical membrane vesicles indicates the existence of single transporter with Km congruent to 2 mM and Vmax congruent to 3 nmol.min-1.mg protein-1. Measurement of alpha-methylglucoside uptake as a function of sodium concentration is consistent with a sodium:sugar stoichiometry of approximately 2:1.l There is a good correlation over time between the development of the concentrating capacity of the intact epithelium for alpha-methylglucoside and the transport properties of the vesicle preparation.

Animals↗

Aldosterone and corticosterone binding and effects on Na+ transport in cultured kidney cells.

A continuous line of cells (A6) derived from toad kidney has been shown to form epithelia in culture that manifest aldosterone-stimulatable transepithelial sodium transport. In this study an efficient filtration assay for nuclear binding of [3H]aldosterone was validated. Specific high-affinity aldosterone and corticosterone binding sites in the particulate (nuclear-enriched) fraction were characterized in intact epithelia. Despite metabolism of both steroids, two high-affinity binding sites for each were demonstrable: aldosterone, K'd1 = 0.85 (+/- 0.19) X 10(-10) and K'd2 = 1.6 (+/- 0.42) X 10(-8) M; corticosterone, K'd1 = 0.5 (+/- 0.31) X 10(-10) and K'd2 = 0.32 (+/- 0.19) X 10(-8) M. Analogue competition-binding studies indicated a qualitative difference in the two sites and co-occupancy of both sites by the two steroids. The sodium transport response to aldosterone and corticosterone approximated a linear function of occupancy of the lower affinity sites. Although the lower affinity sites resemble mammalian glucocorticoid receptors in terms of relative binding affinities for analogues, we conclude that they are the receptors which mediate the aldosterone and corticosterone stimulation of Na+ transport in these epithelia.

Aldosterone↗

Fluorescent membrane probes and the mechanism of maintenance of cellular asymmetry in epithelia.

Individual epithelial cells are asymmetric with respect to morphology, distribution of enzymes, lipid composition, ionic permeability, and sensitivity to drugs and hormones on the apical (mucosal) versus basolateral (serosal) membranes. It has been suggested that the tight junction, which forms the morphological boundary between apical and basolateral surfaces, helps to maintain this cellular asymmetry by forming a barrier to lateral diffusion of membrane constituents across these membranes. We have directly tested this hypothesis by selectively labeling either the apical or basolateral membrane with fluorescent probes and ascertaining 1) whether the probe can diffuse laterally in the membrane, and 2) whether it can pass through the tight junction region to the side of the cell initially not labeled. Our results show that membrane-bound lectins and some lipid probes are incapable of passing through the tight junction region. The lectins are immobile on the cell surface, but the lipid probes diffuse freely in the membrane. We propose that the ability of a lipid probe to pass through the tight junction is correlated with its ability to flip-flop to the inner monolayer of the cell membrane bilayer, and that the tight junction thus forms a barrier to lipids in the outer monolayer only. Differences in diffusion rates of different lipid probes also appear to reflect different physical characteristics of the inner versus outer membrane leaflet.

Animals↗

Hormone effects on transport in cultured epithelia with high electrical resistance.

Three continuous lines of amphibian epithelial cells form epithelia with a high transepithelial resistance (greater than 4,000 omega . cm2) in culture. The cell lines are TB-M and TB-6c, derived from the urinary bladder of Bufo marinus, and A6, derived from the kidney of Xenopus laevis. Short-circuit current is equivalent to net mucosa-to-serosa sodium transport in two cell lines and slightly exceeds sodium transport in epithelia formed by TB-6c cells. None of the cell lines has an adenylate cyclase response or a transport or permeability response to vasopressin. Water permeability is low in all three cell lines and is not affected by adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP). In the three lines of cells, cAMP and aldosterone each increases short-circuit current with a time course similar to that seen in naturally occurring epithelia. In contrast to the toad urinary bladder and epithelia of line TB-M in which the aldosterone stimulation of short-circuit current is associated with a fall in transepithelial resistance, there is no change in resistance across epithelia of lines TB-6c and A6. There is also a striking difference in the sensitivity of the three lines to inhibition of short-circuit current by amiloride.

Aldosterone↗

Transport properties of toad kidney epithelia in culture.

The characteristics of a continuous line of toad kidney epithelial cells (A6) are described. These cells form a monolayer epithelium of high transepithelial electrical resistance (about 5,000 omega . cm2). The cells generate a transepithelial potential difference (apical surface negative) of about 9 mV. The short-circuit current is equivalent to net sodium flux. Net sodium flux is stimulated by aldosterone and by analogues of cAMP. The stimulation is readily reversible. Neither urea permeability nor osmotic water flow is altered by analogues of cAMP. Amiloride eliminates 90% of the short-circuit current. Thus A6 cells form an epithelium with several differentiated properties including hormonal regulation of transport.

8-Bromo Cyclic Adenosine Monophosphate↗