gramicidin-a and 3-3--dipropyloxadicarbocyanine

The fluorescence intensity of the dye 1,1'-dipropylox-adicarbocyanine (DiOC3-(5] has been measured in suspensions of Ehrlich ascites tumor cells in an attempt to monitor their membrane potential (Vm) under different ionic conditions, after treatment with cation ionophores and after hypotonic cell swelling. Calibration is performed with gramicidin in Na+-free K-/choline-media, i.e., standard medium in which NaCl is replaced by KCl and cholineCl and where the sum of potassium and choline is kept constant at 155 mM. Calibration by the valinomycin "null point" procedure described by Laris et al. (Laris, P.C., Pershadsingh, A., Johnstone, R.M., 1976, Biochim, Biophys. Acta 436:475-488) is shown to be valid only in the presence of the Cl- -channel blocker indacrinone (MK196). Distribution of the lipophilic anion SCN- as an indirect estimation of the membrane potential is found not to be applicable for the fast changes in Vm reported in this paper. Incubation with DiOC3-(5) for 5 min is demonstrated to reduce the Cl permeability by 26 +/- 5% and the NO3- permeability by 15 +/- 2%, while no significant effect of the probe could be demonstrated on the K+ permeability. Values for Vm, corrected for the inhibitory effect of the dye on the anion conductance, are estimated at -61 +/- 1 mV in isotonic standard NaCl medium, -78 +/- 3 mV in isotonic Na+-free choline medium and -46 +/- 1 mV in isotonic NaNO3 medium. The cell membrane is depolarized by addition of the K+ channel inhibitor quinine and it is hyperpolarized when the cells are suspended in Na+-free choline medium, indicating that Vm is generated partly by potassium and partly by sodium diffusion. Ehrlich cells have previously been shown to be more permeable to nitrate than to chloride. Substituting NO3- for all cellular and extracellular Cl- leads to a depolarization of the membrane, demonstrating that Vm is also generated by the anions and that anions are above equilibrium. Taking the previously demonstrated single-file behavior of the K+ channels into consideration, the membrane conductances in Ehrlich cells are estimated at 10.4 microS/cm2 for K+, 3.0 microS/cm2 for Na+, 0.6 microS/cm2 for Cl- and 8.7 microS/cm2 for NO3-. Addition of the Ca2+-ionophore A23187 results in net loss of KCl and a hyperpolarization of the membrane, indicating that the K+ permeability exceeds the Cl- permeability also after the addition of A23187. The K+ and Cl- conductances in A23187-treated Ehrlich cells are estimated at 134 and

Topics: Animals; Calcimycin; Carbocyanines; Carcinoma, Ehrlich Tumor; Cell Membrane Permeability; Chlorides; Electric Conductivity; Fluorescent Dyes; Gramicidin; Ion Channels; Membrane Potentials; Mice; Quinine; Thiocyanates; Valinomycin

1. Pigeon erythrocytes, resealed lysed erythrocytes or liposomes derived from erythrocyte lipids were suspended in solutions containing up to 2 micrometer-3,3'-dipropyloxadicarbocyanine iodide. Gramicidin, valinomycin, nigericin or carbonyl cyanide p-trifluoromethoxy-phenylhydrazone, or combinations of these, were used to induce electrical diffusion potentials dependent on Na+, K+ or protons. In each instance hyperpolarization of the cell membrane lowered the fluorescence of the cell suspension, a process that was completed in about 1 min. Subsequent depolarization caused an increase in fluorescence. 2. Quenching of the fluorescence of the cell suspension appeared to be due to the reversible binding of the dye to the cells. Much larger amounts of dye were bound, both to the intact and to the resealed erythrocytes, than would be expected if partitioning of the dye cation followed the Nernst equation. The dependence of the binding on the extracellular dye concentration was studied in the presence and absence of valinomycin. The results were consistent with the suggestion of Sims, Waggoner, Wang & Hoffman [(1974) Biochemistry 13, 3315-3330] that the dye was bound at both membrane surfaces and that, at low dye concentrations, hyperpolarizing the cells promoted dye binding at the inner membrane surface. 3. The applications of the technique are limited by the circumstance that the direct effect of the electric field on the uptake of the dye into the cells is amplified by a binding process that may be affected by other physiological variables.

Topics: Animals; Carbocyanines; Columbidae; Erythrocyte Membrane; Erythrocytes; Fluorescence; Fluorescent Dyes; Gramicidin; Ionophores; Liposomes; Membrane Potentials; Models, Biological; Nigericin; Quinolines; Valinomycin