Role of Polyamine-Regulated KATP Channels
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Retinal Cell Biology Vulnerability of the Retinal Microvasculature to Hypoxia: Role of Polyamine-Regulated KATP Channels Atsuko Nakaizumi1 and Donald G. Puro1,2 PURPOSE. It is uncertain why retinal capillaries are particularly of retinal vascular disorders. Here, we considered the idea that vulnerable to hypoxia. In this study, it was hypothesized that specialized physiological adaptations of the retinal capillaries their specialized physiology, which includes being the predom- boost their vulnerability to hypoxia. inant microvascular location of functional adenosine triphos- Evidence is accumulating that within the circulatory system 1–3 phate-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels, boosts their suscep- of the retina, there is functional specialization. For exam- tibility to hypoxia-induced cell death. ple, most of the functional adenosine triphosphate-sensitive 2 METHODS. Cell viability, ionic currents, intracellular calcium, potassium (KATP) channels are located in the capillaries. In and pericyte contractility in microvascular complexes freshly contrast, the activity of voltage-dependent calcium channels isolated from the rat retina were assessed using trypan blue dye (VDCCs) is minimal in this microvascular region, but is robust 3 exclusion, perforated-patch recordings, fura-2 fluorescence, in the precapillary tertiary arterioles. An important opera- and time-lapse videos. Chemical hypoxia was induced by anti- tional result of this topographical distribution of ion channels mycin, an oxidative phosphorylation inhibitor. is that the hyperpolarizing KATP current activated by vasoactive signals, such as adenosine, is generated almost exclusively in RESULTS. In freshly isolated retinal microvascular complexes, 2 chemical hypoxia caused more cell death in capillaries than in the capillaries and must be transmitted proximally to micro- arterioles. Indicative of the role of polyamine-dependent K vascular sites where VDCCs are available to transduce the ATP induced voltage change into a vasomotor response that alters channels, antimycin-induced capillary cell death was markedly 2,3 decreased in microvessels treated with the polyamine synthesis blood flow. Although this functional specialization within the retinal microvasculature appears to be important for the inhibitor, difluoromethylornithine, or the KATP channel inhib- itor, glibenclamide. These inhibitors also diminished the anti- effective regulation of local perfusion, we hypothesized that mycin-induced hyperpolarization, as well as the antimycin- the abundance of KATP channels may boost the vulnerability of induced intracellular calcium increase, which was significantly the capillaries to hypoxic damage. dependent on extracellular calcium and was diminished by the How could an abundance of KATP channels boost capillary inhibitor of calcium-induced calcium release (CICR), dan- vulnerability to hypoxia? We posited that a hypoxia-induced trolene. Consistent with the importance of the CICR-depen- drop in the ATP concentration activates the capillary KATP dent increase in capillary cell calcium, dantrolene significantly channels, whose function is inhibited by intracellular ATP. Due to the hypoxia-induced activation of KATP channels, increased decreased hypoxia-induced capillary cell death. We also found ϩ 2ϩ K efflux via these channels would cause hyperpolarization, that activation of the polyamine/KATP channel/Ca influx/ CICR pathway not only boosted the vulnerability of retinal which in turn, would increase the electrochemical gradient for capillaries to hypoxia, but also caused the contraction of cap- the influx of calcium via nonspecific cation (NSC) channels, illary pericytes, whose vasoconstrictive effect may exacerbate which are the predominant calcium-permeable ion channels 4 hypoxia. expressed in retinal capillaries. Because increased intracellu- lar calcium is known to exacerbate hypoxic damage in a variety CONCLUSIONS. The vulnerability of retinal capillaries to hyp- of cell types,5,6 we proposed a working model in which the oxia is boosted by a mechanism involving the polyamine/ 2ϩ KATP channel-dependent increase in cell calcium boosts the KATP channel/Ca influx/CICR pathway. Discovery of this pathway should provide new targets for pharmacological vulnerability of retinal capillaries to hypoxia. In addition to K channels, we hypothesized that endog- interventions to minimize hypoxia-induced damage in retinal ATP capillaries. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2011;52:9345–9352) enous polyamines play a role in establishing the vulnerability of DOI:10.1167/iovs.11-8176 retinal capillaries to hypoxia. These ornithine-derived mole- cules were of interest because we found previously2 that the function of microvascular K channels, which are redox- his study addressed the question of why the capillaries of ATP sensitive,2 is dependent on endogenous polyamines, whose the retina are particularly prone to hypoxia-induced cell T catabolism generates H O .7 Consistent with polyamines hav- damage and death, which occurs during the course of a variety 2 2 ing a role in capillary cell death, these molecules are known to modulate death pathways in a variety of cell types,8 although its diversity of effects, which include enhancing and inhibiting From the Departments of 1Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences cell death, remain confounding, and the mechanisms by which and 2Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Michigan, Ann polyamines affect cell viability are incompletely understood. In Arbor, Michigan. this study, we tested the novel hypothesis that by regulating Supported by National Institutes of Health Grants EY12505 and the function of KATP channels, endogenous polyamines may EY07003. play a role in establishing the lethality of hypoxia in the cap- Submitted for publication July 6, 2011; revised October 19, 2011; illaries of the retina. accepted October 23, 2011. Disclosure: A. Nakaizumi, None; D.G. Puro, None We report that in freshly isolated retinal microvascular com- Corresponding author: Donald G. Puro, Department of Ophthal- plexes, the inhibitor of oxidative phosphorylation, antimycin A, mology and Visual Sciences, University of Michigan, 1000 Wall Street, causes substantially more cell death in the capillaries than in the Ann Arbor, MI 48505; [email protected]. precapillary arterioles. Experiments using the patch-clamp tech- Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, December 2011, Vol. 52, No. 13 Copyright 2011 The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Inc. 9345 Downloaded from iovs.arvojournals.org on 10/01/2021 9346 Nakaizumi and Puro IOVS, December 2011, Vol. 52, No. 13 nique, calcium-imaging, time-lapse photography, and the trypan Model of Hypoxia blue viability assay provided evidence that the greater vulnerabil- ity of the capillaries to hypoxia-induced cell death is due to the Chemical hypoxia was created by exposing isolated retinal microvas- activation of a pathway involving endogenous polyamines, hyper- cular complexes to the inhibitor of oxidative phosphorylation, antimy- cinA(5M). polarizing KATP channels, calcium influx, and calcium-induced calcium release (CICR). Our experimental results indicate that 2ϩ activation of the polyamine/KATP channel/Ca influx/CICR path- Cell Viability Assay way is a previously unappreciated mechanism by which the Microvascular cells that failed to exclude trypan blue dye were classi- vulnerability of retinal capillaries to hypoxia is boosted. fied as dead. As done previously,10–12 the trypan blue assay was performed by exposing microvessel-containing coverslips to 0.04% METHODS trypan blue in solution A for 15 minutes. After washing in solution A, microvessels were examined at magnification ϫ 100 with an inverted Animal use conformed to the guidelines of the ARVO Statement for the microscope equipped with bright-field optics. Because differences in Use of Animals in Ophthalmic and Vision Research and was approved abluminal cell density made it straightforward to distinguish precapil- by the University of Michigan Committee on the Use and Care of lary tertiary arterioles from the capillaries,1 cell viability was tallied Animals. This study used Long-Evans rats (Charles River, Cambridge, separately for these portions of the retinal microvasculature. For each MA), which were maintained on a 12-hour alternating light/dark cycle microvascular region, the percentage of the surveyed cells that were and had unrestricted access to water and food. trypan blue positive (i.e., dead), was calculated. Because trypan blue- containing cells typically were swollen, identification of these cells as Microvessel Isolation being endothelial or abluminal was uncertain, and thus, subclassifica- A previously described tissue print technique2 was used to isolate vast tion of microvascular cells into these two types was not done. microvascular complexes from the retinas of rats, which were killed Cell viability was initially quantified before the onset of antimycin with a rising concentration of carbon dioxide. In brief, the procedure exposure. In freshly isolated retinal microvascular complexes, cell for microvessel isolation included the rapid removal of retinas, exci- viability was high (i.e., 96.7 Ϯ 0.3; n ϭ 62 microvascular complexes, sion of adherent vitreous, and incubation for approximately 24 min- and 94.9 Ϯ 0.3; n ϭ 62 in tertiary arterioles and capillaries, respec- utes at 30°C in Earle’s balanced salt solution supplemented with 0.5 tively). In some experiments, freshly isolated microvascular complexes mM EDTA, 6 U papain (Worthington