Intracellular zinc distribution and transport in C6 rat glioma cells

In mammalian cells, the intracellular availability of zinc influences numerous crucial processes. Its distribution has previously been visualized with several fluorescent probes, but it was unclear how these probes are compartmentalized within the cell. Here, we show that in C6 cells the zinc-specif...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biochemical and biophysical research communications 2002-08, Vol.296 (4), p.923-928
Main Authors: Haase, Hajo, Beyersmann, Detmar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adenosine Triphosphate - metabolism
Animals
Biological Transport
Cell Membrane - metabolism
Cell Nucleus - metabolism
Ethylmaleimide - pharmacology
Fluorescence
Fluorescent Dyes - pharmacology
Histidine - metabolism
Intracellular distribution
Ions
Microscopy, Fluorescence
Protein Transport
Quinolones - pharmacology
Rats
Spectrophotometry, Atomic
Time Factors
Tosyl Compounds - pharmacology
Tumor Cells, Cultured
Vanadates - pharmacology
Zinc
Zinc - metabolism
Zinquin
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Summary:In mammalian cells, the intracellular availability of zinc influences numerous crucial processes. Its distribution has previously been visualized with several fluorescent probes, but it was unclear how these probes are compartmentalized within the cell. Here, we show that in C6 cells the zinc-specific probe Zinquin is evenly distributed. Thus, the significantly lower level of fluorescence in the nucleus and a punctuate vesicular staining are real differences in the concentrations of zinc. Chemical perturbation of the steady state by releasing intracellular protein-bound zinc with the sulfhydryl-reactive N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) resulted in a vanadate sensitive transport of zinc out of the nucleus and into zincosomes. If the zinc-release was performed with the histidine-reactive diethylpyrocarbonate, sequestration was reduced compared to treatment with NEM, indicating the importance of histidine within membrane zinc transporters. Another major factor regulating the zinc homeostasis is ion export. As determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy, up to 50% of the cellular zinc was exported by a mechanism sensitive to lanthanum ions. We conclude that different concentrations of labile zinc exist in different cellular compartments, which are maintained by export and intracellular transport of zinc.
ISSN:0006-291X
1090-2104
DOI:10.1016/S0006-291X(02)02017-X