Plasma membrane calcium pump activity is affected by the membrane

L. VANAGAS; R. C. ROSSI; A. J. CARIDE; A. G. FILOTEO; E. E. STREHLER; J. P. F. C. ROSSI

BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA-BIOMEMBRANES

Elsevier

Año: 2007 vol. 1768 p. 1641 - 1649

0005-2736

Plasma membrane calcium pumps (PMCAs) are integral membrane proteins that actively expel Ca2+ from the cell. Specific Ca2+-ATPase activity of erythrocyte membranes increased steeply up to 1.5–5 times when the membrane protein concentration decreased from 50 μg/ml to 1 μg/ml. The activation by dilution was also observed for ATP-dependent Ca2+ uptake into vesicles from Sf9 cells overexpressing the PMCA 4b isoform, confirming that it is a property of the PMCA. Dilution of the protein did not modify the activation by ATP, Ca2+ or Ca2+-calmodulin. Treatment with non-ionic detergents did not abolish the dilution effect, suggesting that it was not due to resealing of the membrane vesicles. Pre-incubation of erythrocyte membranes with Cytochalasin D under conditions that promote actin polymerization abolished the dilution effect. Highly-purified, micellar PMCA showed no dilution effect and was not affected by Cytochalasin D. Taken together, these results suggest that the concentration-dependent behavior of the PMCA activity was due to interactions with cytoskeletal proteins. The dilution effect was also observed with different PMCA isoforms, indicating that this is a general phenomenon for all PMCAs.