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1Institute of Molecular Cardiobiology, Division of Cardiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205; and 2Cardiovascular Research Group, Department of Physiology, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19140
Submitted 16 July 2003 ; accepted in final form 25 September 2003
| ABSTRACT |
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potassium channels; transient outward current; Kv channel-interacting protein; repolarization
Ventricular Ito is highly regulated both temporally and regionally in normal hearts (35) and is significantly modulated in a wide variety of structural heart diseases (23). For instance, action potential duration (APD) prolongation in heart failure is associated with a concomitant reduction of the phase 1 repolarizing notch of the action potential, which is inscribed by Ito (15). In ischemia, Ito is thought to play a critical role in the protection of epicardial cells against metabolic inhibition by contributing to abrupt shortening of epicardial APD (22). Moreover, regional and transmural differences in the balance between Ito and Na+ current (INa) may underlie ventricular fibrillation and sudden death in patients with inherited arrhythmias such as Brugada syndrome (9, 40). Finally, inhibition of Ito by several antiarrhythmic agents such as flecainide, quinidine, and propafenone contributes to both their therapeutic and proarrhythmic effects (24, 33, 42). Therefore, defining the molecular identity and electrophysiological properties of ventricular Ito is essential for a comprehensive understanding of arrhythmia mechanisms in a wide variety of pathologies and may aid in the proper choice and design of antiarrhythmic drug therapy.
Measurements of human Ito require the availability of explanted hearts from patients with heart failure or nonfailing donor hearts that are deemed technically unsuitable for transplantation. Because of the difficulties associated with obtaining appropriate human cardiac samples and the confounding complexities associated with disease etiology and therapy in humans, animal models of cardiovascular disease, especially in dog, have been widely used. The usefulness of these models is dependent on their mimicry of human physiology and disease. Therefore, the exact identity of human Ito and its variation from the canine counterpart must be investigated in detail.
Kv4.3 has emerged as the leading candidate K+ channel gene likely to encode cardiac Ito in large mammals such as dogs and humans (10, 14, 32, 34, 44). Moreover, Kv4 subunits may form heteromeric complexes with a class of Kv channel-interacting proteins, K+ channel accessory proteins (KChIPs), in vivo (2, 5, 6, 8, 28, 31). Although KChIP2 significantly modulates Kv4.3 function when expressed in heterologous systems (5, 6, 8, 28), it remains unknown whether KChIP2 or other accessory subunits, such as KChAP (1, 18, 37) or Kv
(8, 19, 41), merely act to increase the sarcolemmal expression of Kv4.3 or, in fact, directly participate in the formation of native ventricular Ito.
In the present study, the electrophysiological and pharmacological properties of human and canine Ito were compared. Human ventricular Ito differs appreciably from canine Ito in both steady-state inactivation and recovery from inactivation. Moreover, differences in the pharmacological profiles of human and canine Ito suggest differences in the molecular architecture of the channel pore in these two species. Western blots of human and canine tissues demonstrate expression of Kv4.3, Kv1.4, and KChIP2 in both species but with distinctive variations in apparent molecular weights. Such differences may underlie the heterogeneity of the biophysical fingerprint of Ito across species. Functional differences in human and canine ventricular Ito may be attributable to intrinsic variations in Kv4.3 between dog and human, functional expression of other, yet to be identified
- or
-subunits, and/or differences in posttranscriptional or translational modification of the two isoforms.
| METHODS |
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Isolation of human and canine myocytes. Human and canine midventricular myocytes were isolated from the anterior wall of the left ventricle of seven humans (5 failing, 2 normal) and five dogs by perfusion of a diagonal branch of the LAD with a nominally Ca2+-free solution containing collagenase and protease, as described previously (13, 15, 26, 27). Myocytes were stored at room temperature (2223°C) in Tyrode solution consisting of (in mM) 130 NaCl, 4.5 KCl, 5 MgCl2, 23 HEPES, 21 glucose, 20 taurine, 5 Na pyruvate, and 20 2,3-butanedione monoxime, pH 7.4. The concentration of CaCl2 was gradually raised from 100 µM to 2 mM. Only rod-shaped cells exhibiting clear cross striations and no spontaneous contractions were selected for electrophysiological study. A total of 22 human and 21 canine myocytes were used in this study.
The objective of this work was to investigate phenotypic differences in Ito across species. Because previously we (14) and others (4) had demonstrated that the biophysical properties of Ito were not altered in human heart failure, we combined the electrophysiological data from cells of normal and failing human hearts because of the limited availability of normal human samples.
Electrophysiological measurements. Current recordings were obtained at 24°C with the patch-clamp technique in whole cell configuration as previously described (6, 7). Glass pipettes were prepared to have a final tip resistance of 23 M
when filled with internal solution containing (in mM) 120 K+-glutamate, 10 KCl, 10 HEPES, 5 EGTA, and 5 MgATP. pH was adjusted to 7.2 with KOH, yielding a final K+ concentration of 140 mM. Cells were perfused with Tyrode solution containing (in mM) 140 NaCl, 5 KCl, 1 MgCl2, 2 CaCl2, 10 HEPES, and 10 glucose, adjusted to pH 7.4. CdCl2 (0.3 mM) was added to the bath solution to eliminate voltage-activated L-type Ca2+ and Ca2+-dependent currents. Cell capacitance was estimated by integrating the area under an uncompensated depolarizing step of 10 mV from a holding potential of 80 mV. Whole cell currents were elicited with a family of depolarizing voltage steps (40 to +80 mV) from a holding potential of 50 mV. Currents were low-pass filtered at 2 kHz and digitized at 10 kHz for offline analysis. Ito was defined as the difference between the peak transient current and the steady-state current at the end of a 500-ms voltage clamp pulse. Current inhibition by flecainide (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) was measured as the percent decrease in peak current after subtraction of the steady-state current.
Whole cell currents were analyzed with custom-developed software. Pooled data are expressed as means ± SE. Statistical comparisons were performed with the unpaired Student's t-test. Differences in data were considered significant at P < 0.05.
Western blot analysis. Left ventricular samples from normal (n = 2) and failing (n = 5) human hearts and normal canine hearts (n = 5) were rapidly frozen in liquid nitrogen after organ harvest. Proteins were prepared as previously described (7, 14). Samples were run in duplicate or triplicate on 10%, 12.5%, or 15% Tris·HCl precast gels (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA) in 25 mM Tris, 192 mM glycine, and 0.1% (wt/vol) SDS running buffer. A standard control sample was also run on all gels to allow for comparisons across gels. Primary antibody incubations were performed overnight at 4°C with rabbit anti-KChIP (Wyeth-Ayerst Research, Princeton, NJ), KChIP2S/T (6), Kv1.4 (Alamone Labs, Jerusalem, Israel), and Kv4.3 (Chemicon, Temecula, CA) polyclonal antibodies, as described previously (14). Secondary horseradish peroxidase-conjugated antibodies were obtained from Jackson ImmunoResearch (West Grove, PA). Membranes were exposed and developed with enhanced chemiluminescence (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Piscataway, NJ) according to the manufacturer's instructions.
| RESULTS |
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40%) of myocytes from failing human hearts expressed appreciable Ito density suitable for detailed electrophysiological analysis. Only failing human myocytes with Ito density of at least 5 pA/pF were studied.
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As shown in Fig. 1C, the current-voltage relationships of human and canine Ito were linear-positive to the threshold potentials for current activation. The average slope conductances (from 0 to +60 mV) were 7.3 ± 1.8 and 10.9 ± 2.5 pA·pF1·mV1 (P < 0.01) in human and canine myocytes, respectively. The threshold potential for Ito activation was more depolarized in human (10 to 0 mV) than canine (20 to 10 mV) myocytes (Fig. 1C).
Species-dependent differences in inactivation properties. Time constants of Ito decay (
h) were determined by fitting the falling phase of the whole cell current to a monoexponential function. At test potentials >0 mV,
h was independent of voltage (Fig. 1B). Interestingly,
h was significantly shorter (by
40%) in canine (41.1 ± 7.4 ms at +50 mV) than human (61.4 ± 1.7 ms, P < 0.01) myocytes (Fig. 1B, Table 1).
Species-dependent differences in steady-state inactivation of Ito. The steady-state availability of Ito was assessed with a standard two-pulse protocol as shown in Fig. 1D. The half-maximal potential for steady-state inactivation (V1/2) of human myocytes isolated from normal ventricles (27.3 ± 1.1 mV) was not significantly different from that of myocytes isolated from failing hearts (27.7 ± 0.5 mV). However, the steady-state inactivation of Ito in canine myocytes was significantly (P < 0.001) shifted in the hyperpolarized direction compared with human (normal and failing) myocytes (V1/2 = 37.4 ± 1.1 mV). Finally, similar to our previous findings (14) in canine myocytes isolated from normal and failing hearts, myocytes from normal (4.7 ± 0.3 mV1) and failing (4.7 ± 0.4 mV1) human hearts also exhibited identical slopes of their steady-state inactivation curves. Importantly, the slope of steady-state inactivation in human myocytes was significantly greater than that in canine myocytes (4.2 ± 0.1 mV1).
Species-dependent differences in recovery from inactivation of Ito. Human and canine Ito exhibited distinctive time courses of recovery from inactivation. The recovery kinetics of both human and canine Ito were measured after a 500-ms depolarizing voltage step to +50 mV from a holding potential of 100 mV and a subsequent 10-ms INa inactivating prepulse to 40 mV. Myocytes from both normal and failing human ventricles recovered rapidly and almost completely (98.8 ± 1.6%) within 250 ms (Fig. 2). The recovery of human Ito followed a monoexponential time (
1) course with time constants that did not differ in myocytes isolated from normal (
1 = 27.8 ± 6.3 ms at 100 mV) and failing (
1 = 21.3 ± 2.6 ms) human hearts (P = 0.7, not significant). In contrast, canine Ito exhibited a biexponential recovery from inactivation. The fast and slow time constants for canine Ito recovery were 69.1 ± 13.5 ms (40.5 ± 6% of peak Ito) and 316 ± 44 ms (59.4 ± 11% of peak Ito), respectively. As illustrated in Fig. 2C,
90% of the current peak was consistently recovered within 1 s of the initial depolarizing voltage step.
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Species-dependent differences in pharmacological sensitivity of Ito. Flecainide (to block Kv4.3-encoded current) and H2O2 (to alter the inactivation kinetics of Kv1.4-encoded current) have been used to determine the contribution of these two K+ channel subunits to native atrial Ito (12, 36, 39). We assessed the contribution of Kv4.3 vs. Kv1.4 to native ventricular Ito in dogs and humans by investigating the differential sensitivity of the current in both species to flecainide and H2O2. Flecainide (10 µM) produced a significantly larger reduction in peak current density of Ito in human (49%) compared with canine (18%) myocytes (Fig. 3). H2O2 (0.01%), on the other hand, produced no measurable effect on the time course of inactivation of human or canine ventricular Ito (Fig. 4). Also shown in Fig. 4B are action potentials recorded from a canine myocyte before (control) and after exposure to H2O2. Although H2O2 resulted in a trend toward an increase in APD, there was no change in the amplitude of the phase 1 notch. Together, these data suggest that Kv1.4 does not contribute appreciably to ventricular Ito in either species, as it encodes a current that is highly sensitive to H2O2.
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Subunit composition of human and canine Ito. We sought to determine the molecular basis for the differential expression of Ito in human and canine ventricular myocardium. As shown in Fig. 5, immunoreactive Kv4.3, Kv1.4, and KChIP2 proteins are expressed in the left ventricles of both species. Kv4.3 in humans is present at a predominant band of 75 kDa, which is larger than that in canine myocardium (70 kDa). In contrast, the predominant band specific for Kv1.4 in canine ventricles (94 kDa) is appreciably larger than that in humans (86 kDa). Finally, KChIP2, along with several splice variants including KChIP2S and KChIP2T, is also abundantly expressed in both human and canine ventricular myocardium at the nucleotide level (6). In human myocardium, KChIP2 was consistently detected as a single specific band that ran at 35 kDa, whereas in dog two bands were typically observed at 35 and 25 kDa (Fig. 5).
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| DISCUSSION |
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Human ventricular Ito was found to differ significantly from its canine counterpart in voltage dependence and kinetics of inactivation and rate of current decay. For example, the V1/2 of human myocytes was significantly more depolarized than canine ventricular Ito. The response of sarcolemmal currents such as Ito to membrane depolarization may have significant implications for a wide variety of human diseases, notably ischemia, in which membrane depolarization is a well-established feature. Because our data suggest that inactivation of human Ito is relatively resistant to membrane depolarization compared with the canine isoform, caution must be exercised when extrapolating the effects of ischemia on Ito in canine experimental models.
Ito recovery from inactivation differs significantly between canine and human myocytes. In canines, recovery from inactivation of Ito is described by two exponential components. The fast component has a time constant of
70 ms, whereas the time constant of the slow component is over fourfold greater (>300 ms). Human ventricular Ito follows a monoexponential time course of recovery, which is significantly (by 61%) faster than the fast component in dogs, consistent with greater availability of human compared with canine Ito under similar recording conditions. Differences in the recovery kinetics of Ito are likely to have strong clinical importance. For example, recent reports have elegantly implicated Ito in the mechanism of arrhythmias associated with Brugada syndrome, whereby phase 2 reentrant excitation could occur between cells with recovered Ito and those with inactive Ito (3, 9).
Both Kv4.3 and Kv1.4 proteins are expressed in the myocardium of large mammals (29). Flecainide and H2O2 have been used to determine the contribution of these two K+ channel subunits to native Ito (12, 36, 39). Although flecainide (low dose, 10 µM) suppresses peak Kv4.x current (52% mean reduction), it has little effect on Kv1.4 (only 11% mean reduction) when expressed in mammalian cells (30, 43). In our experiments, flecainide reduced the peak current density of human ventricular Ito without affecting the kinetics of its recovery from inactivation. In contrast, flecainide had a relatively diminished effect on canine ventricular Ito density. Unlike flecainide, oxidative stress did not affect the inactivation kinetics of either isoform, suggesting that Kv1.4 is not a significant contributor to human or canine ventricular Ito.
To further investigate differences in the molecular identity of human and canine Ito, Western blots with antibodies recognizing Kv4.3, Kv1.4, and KChIP2 were performed. Interestingly, all three subunits are expressed in the ventricles of humans and dogs. However, despite the presence of Kv1.4 mRNA (not shown) and protein (Fig. 5) in both human and canine ventricular myocardium, the electrophysiological properties of the currents and their sensitivity to flecainide and resistance to H2O2 argue against a significant role for this subunit in native ventricular Ito channels. Finally, the differential sensitivity of canine and human Ito to flecainide and the significant variation (by
5 kDa) in the molecular mass of Kv4.3 between dog and human, suggests a difference in the primary structure or posttranslational modification of the subunit, which may underlie the distinct species-specific electrophysiological and pharmacological properties.
It appears most likely that Kv4.3 serves as the major subunit underlying ventricular Ito in both human and canine ventricular myocardium, because Kv4.2 is not present in either species at the mRNA level (data not shown). However, a number of ancillary subunits are known to modify Kv4.3 function. KChIP2 is a Ca2+-binding accessory subunit expressed in the heart that increases expression and dramatically slows current decay of all Kv4 isoforms. Moreover, KChIP2 significantly shifts the voltage dependence of inactivation of expressed Kv4.2 (2) but not human Kv4.3 currents (6). The role of this accessory subunit in the formation of native Ito remains incompletely understood. We (6) previously demonstrated protein expression of KChIP2 splice variants in canine and human ventricular myocytes from both normal and failing hearts. However, heterologous expression of Kv4.3 with any combination of the KChIP2 splice variants does not fully reproduce the electrophysiological properties of native Ito (6). Therefore, more investigation is required to determine whether KChIP2 or other, yet to be identified accessory subunits interact with Kv4.x to yield native Ito channels.
Limitations. A reduction of Ito is generally observed in human and animal models of heart failure. Downregulation of Ito may be due, at least in part, to neurohormonal modulation of the current or by direct alterations in
- or
-subunit expression in the heart. The comparisons in this study are limited by the low availability of normal human myocardium.
Transmural heterogeneity of ion channel expression, including Ito, across the ventricular wall, has been described in many species. Repolarizing K+ currents in dogs are also larger in the right than the left ventricle. By design, this study was limited to myocytes obtained from the midwall of the anterior left ventricle of human and canine hearts and did not examine myocytes from epicardial or endocardial layers or other regions. Although our data provide evidence for the lack of involvement of Kv1.4 in the composition of Ito, we cannot definitively rule out the participation of Kv1.4, because an alternative mechanism(s) may protect native Ito against oxidative stress.
Although the use of Cd2+ to block L-type Ca2+ current shifts the steady-state inactivation of Ito in the depolarizing direction, differences in the voltage dependence and availability of Ito observed in this study are not caused by differences in external divalent cations, because identical recording conditions were used in cells from both species. The tissue and cell isolation methods were also similar across species.
In conclusion, human and canine ventricular isoforms of Ito differ significantly in their voltage dependence and kinetics of inactivation. The variant electrophysiological and pharmacological profiles of human and canine ventricular Ito suggest differences in the molecular constituents of these channels. The relatively rapid recovery kinetics of both currents and the absence of oxidant sensitivity argue against Kv1.4 as a major component of the Ito channel, despite its presence at the immunoreactive protein level. Our data are most consistent with Kv4.3 as the principal subunit in both species, although we cannot conclusively rule out the contribution of other, yet to be identified subunits or factors. The appreciable differences in the function of both isoforms may result from incorporation of different ancillary subunits in the holochannel, differences in posttranslational modification of one or more of the subunits, or even intrinsic differences in human and canine Kv4.3 genes.
| FOOTNOTES |
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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.
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