Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Perrelet.
We identify in normal cells the existence of two distinct sites of the transitional endoplasmic reticulum (ER), one housing the Sec23p protein complex (the classical transitional element), the other the coatomer protein complex (the coatomer-rich ER). Experimental conditions that reduce transport from the ER to the Golgi complex lead to the overexpression of this newly defined coatomer-rich ER.
By quantitative immunoelectron microscopy and HPLC, we have studied the effect of disrupting pH gradients, by ammonium chloride, on proinsulin conversion in the insulin-producing B-cells of the islets of langerhans. Proinsulin content and pH in single secretory vesicles were measured on consecutive serial sections immunostained alternately with anti-proinsulin or anti-dinitrophenol (to reveal the pH-sensitive probe DAMP) antibodies. Radioactivity labeled proinsulin, proinsulin cleavage intermediates, and insulin were quantitated by HPLC analysis of extracts of islets treated in the same conditions. Cleavage at the C-peptide/A-chain junction is significantly less sensitive to pH gradient disruption than that of the B-chain/C-peptide junction, but the range of pH and proinsulin content in individual vesicles indicate that both cleavages occur in the same vesicle released from the TGN.
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A specialized region of the endoplasmic reticulum--the BFA body--is defined by the site of accumulation of coatomer when nonclathrin coat protein (COP)-coated vesicle assembly is prevented by the drug brefeldin A (BFA). BFA bodies are formed by part smooth, part rough domains of endoplasmic reticulum that are cis to the classical transitional endoplasmic reticulum and to BFA-induced Golgi remnants.
We report that brefeldin A prevents the assembly of non-clathrin-coated vesicles from Golgi cisternae in a cell-free system. This finding provides a simple molecular explanation for the primary effect of this remarkable compound in blocking constitutive secretion. We further report that when coated vesicle assembly is blocked, extensive tubule networks form that connect previously separate cisternae and stacks into a single topological unit, allowing the intermixing of contents of Golgi cisternae, presumably by lateral diffusion. Formation of the tubule networks requires ATP, cytosol, and the general fusion protein NSF. Tubule networks may be related to the membrane tubules mediating retrograde transport in vivo.
Intracellular potassium depletion inhibits receptor-mediated endocytotic processes occurring through clathrin-coated pits. Besides the clathrin-coated pit route, flask-shaped invaginations that do not bear a typical clathrin coat have been recently implicated in receptor-mediated endocytosis of cholera toxin. These invaginations are called "non-coated" to distinguish them from the typical clathrin-coated pits. In the present study, we have investigated whether "non-coated" invaginations are sensitive, as are clathrin-coated pits, to potassium depletion and whether hypertonic medium, which inhibits receptor-mediated endocytosis, also affects "non-coated" invaginations. We found that 1) both potassium depletion and hypertonic medium reduce "non-coated" invaginations on the cell surface; 2) similar to potassium depletion, hypertonic medium markedly decreases the number of clathrin-coated pits; 3) these changes are accompanied by an inhibition of the internalization (measured morphologically) of cholera toxin-gold through "non-coated" invaginations, as well as of alpha 2-macroglobulin-gold taken up by clathrin-coated pits; and 4) in addition, both the hypertonic medium and potassium depletion inhibit the uptake of horseradish peroxidase, a marker of fluid-phase endocytosis.
This study was performed to assess the relationships between prohormone transport and processing in separate cell types in pancreatic islet tissue. Anglerfish islets were subjected to pulse-chase incubation with [3H]tryptophan and/or [35S]cysteine. Tissue and media were removed at specific time points during the incubation and prepared for electron microscopic examination or biochemical analysis. Specific islet cell types were identified ultrastructurally using protein A gold immunocytochemistry. Transport of newly synthesized peptides through specific subcellular compartments was monitored using electron microscopic autoradiography. Prohormone-product ratios were established by gel filtration and high-performance liquid chromatography analyses of tissue extracts. Complete analyses were performed on A-cells (source of proglucagon-II, glucagon-II, and glucagon-like peptide-II), B-cells (proinsulin and insulin), D-cells (prosomatostatin-II and somatostatin-28), and S-cells (prosomatostatin-I and somatostatin-14). Transport of newly synthesized peptides proceeded from rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) to Golgi complex and then to mature secretory granules in all cell types. The transport rate was most rapid in A- and B-cells, slower in S-cells, and slowest in D-cells. The T1/2 for conversion of prohormone to product(s) was shortest in S-cells (150 min), slightly longer in B-cells (155 min), much longer in D-cells (259 min), and greater than 300 min in A-cells. These results demonstrate that the transport/prohormone conversion relationships are unique in each of the islet cell types monitored.
The intracellular site for the sorting of proteins destined for regulated or constitutive pathways is presently unknown for any one cell. By immunoelectron microscopy, we directly followed the routes taken by a regulated hormone, insulin, and a constitutive protein, hemagglutinin. Both proteins are present in individual Golgi stacks where they appear randomly distributed throughout the cisternae. In contrast, the two proteins do not colocalize outside the Golgi area:insulin is concentrated in dense-core secretory granules, while hemagglutinin is found predominantly in clear 100-300 nm vesicles. These vesicles do not label significantly with an endocytic tracer, indicating that they are exocytic carriers for hemagglutinin. The site at which the two proteins diverge is the clathrin-coated, trans-most cisterna of the Golgi, where the packaging of proinsulin takes place.
The direct identification of the intracellular site where proinsulin is proteolytically processed into insulin has been achieved by immunocytochemistry using an insulin-specific monoclonal antibody. Insulin immunoreactivity is absent from the Golgi stack of pancreatic B-cells and first becomes detectable in clathrin-coated secretory vesicles released from the trans Golgi pole. Clathrin-coated secretory vesicles transform into mature noncoated secretory granules which contain the highest concentration of insulin immunoreactive sites. Maturation of clathrin-coated secretory vesicles is accompanied by a progressive acidification of the vesicular milieu, as evidenced by a cytochemical probe that accumulates in acidic compartments whereupon it can be revealed by immunocytochemistry. Thus packaging of the prohormone in secretory vesicles, and acidification of this compartment, are critical steps in the proper proteolytic maturation of insulin.
The basolateral plasma membrane of gastric parietal cells is characterized by the presence of orthogonal arrays of particles revealed by the freeze-fracture technique. These arrays were quantitatively assessed in freeze-fracture replicas of the gastric mucosa at two different levels of the gastric gland and after pentagastrin and metiamide treatment. The arrays were small and scarce in parietal cells located in the upper part of the gland, while they were markedly more abundant in parietal cells situated at the base of the gland. In both superficial and basal cells, the concentration of the arrays was significantly decreased after pentagastrin or metiamide treatment. This decrease was not due to an increase in the surface area of the basal plasma membrane. These results indicate that the concentration of the orthogonal arrays is a distinctive feature between superficial and basal parietal cells and that the arrays can be modulated by parietal cell function.
We have used serial sectioning to study the topology of Golgi cisternae in insulin-secreting cells during secretion-stimulated endocytotic uptake of exogenous horseradish peroxidase (HRP). HRP-labelled cisternae were followed on several series of consecutive sections. This revealed that labelled cisternae could always be traced to a position in the Golgi stack intermediate between the cis and the trans poles. This occurred in spite of the apparent cis or trans locations of HRP-containing cisternae on some sections. The latter images could be explained by the lack of the true cis or trans (clathrin-coated) cisternae at certain levels of the stack.
Upon exposure of pancreatic B cells to exogenous horseradish peroxidase (HRP), a population of secretory granules becomes HRP-labelled. In isolated islets of Langerhans, we studied the fate of HRP-labelled secretory granules during a pulse-chase experiment with HRP in order to assess their relationship with lysosomes containing secretory granule cores. These structures (crinophagic or multigranular bodies) were previously shown to be a site of insulin degradation (Orci et al., J cell biol 98 (1984) 222) [4]. After a 15-min pulse of peroxidase, the number and volume density of HRP-labelled secretory granules decreased over an 85-min chase period, during which the number and volume density of multigranular bodies labelled with HRP was significantly increased. At both time points, the surface density of HRP-labelled Golgi elements was very small compared with that of unlabelled ones. By autoradiography after a 5-min pulse of [3H]leucine and a 55-min chase, followed by a 15-min pulse of HRP and a 85-min chase, we could show that the majority of HRP-containing secretory granules were not radioactively labelled granules. These results suggest that: The low degree of HRP labelling of the Golgi makes it unlikely that secretory granules derive their HRP by budding from HRP-labelled cisternae. HRP-labelled SGs are preferentially transferred to MGBs (which become HRP-labelled) for prospective degradation. HRP labelling does not involve newly-formed mature secretory granules.
Proinsulin is a single polypeptide chain composed of the B and A subunits of insulin joined by the C-peptide region. Proinsulin is converted to insulin during the maturation of secretory vesicles by the action of two proteases and conversion is inhibited by ionophores that disrupted intracellular H+ gradients. To determine if conversion of prohormone to hormone actually occurs in an acidic secretory vesicle, cultured rat islet cells were incubated in the presence of 3-(2,4-dinitroanilino)-3' amino-N-methyldipropylamine (DAMP), a basic congener of dinitrophenol that concentrates in acidic compartments and is retained there after aldehyde fixation. The cells were processed for indirect protein A-gold colocalization of DAMP, using a monoclonal antibody to dinitrophenol, and proinsulin, using a monoclonal antibody that exclusively reacts with the prohormone. The average density of DAMP-specific gold particles in immature secretory vesicles that contained proinsulin was 71/micron 2 (18 times cytoplasmic background), which indicated that this compartment was acidic. However, the density of DAMP-specific gold particles in the insulin-rich mature secretory vesicle averaged 433/micron 2. This suggests that although proinsulin conversion occurs in an acidic compartment, the secretory vesicles become more acidic as they mature. Since the concentration of anti-proinsulin IgG binding in secretory vesicles is inversely proportional to the conversion of proinsulin to insulin, we were able to determine that maturing secretory vesicles had to reach a critical pH before proinsulin conversion occurred.
We have localized proinsulin in B cells of human and rat pancreatic islets, using a proinsulin-specific monoclonal antibody revealed by immunocytochemistry. Proinsulin is abundant in Golgi stacks and clathrin-coated secretory granules. It rapidly disappears from these compartments when protein synthesis is inhibited. Depletion of ATP stores prevents movement of proinsulin from the Golgi stacks to the secretory granules; under these conditions, the prohormone in preformed coated granules is converted to insulin, whereas that bound to the Golgi complex is not. Non-coated granules show a low level of proinsulin reactivity under all incubation protocols. These findings provide direct evidence that coated secretory granules are the major, if not the only, cellular site of proinsulin to insulin conversion. They also suggest that the Golgi stack is not involved in conversion, and that intercisternal transport and coated granule formation are hitherto unrecognized energy-requiring steps that precede conversion.
By analogy with receptor-mediated endocytosis, clathrin-coated membrane segments at locations other than at the plasma membrane have been implicated in intracellular membrane transport/sorting. The crucial role of the Golgi apparatus in these processes prompted us to study the distribution at this level of clathrin-immunoreactive sites in various polypeptide hormone-secreting cells. With a polyclonal antibody recognizing the polymerized form of clathrin (structural coats or cages), we found that the Golgi area had the highest degree of specific labeling of various cytoplasmic regions, including the subplasmalemmal web. Moreover, the Golgi labeling was not homogeneously distributed, most of the immunoreactive sites being associated with membrane segments at the trans pole. The labeled membranes comprised regions of trans cisternae with and without condensing secretory material, newly formed (maturing) secretory granules freshly released from trans cisternae, and typical coated vesicles. The cis Golgi cisternae, as well as the cytoplasmic region containing transfer (shuttle) vesicles and transitional cisternae of the rough endoplasmic reticulum, were only weakly labeled. Clathrin concentration, degree of assembly of triskelions into coats, duration of clathrin association with membranes, or presence of a coat protein different from clathrin could account for the low immunoreactivity observed at the cis pole as compared to the trans pole.
The intramembrane particle (IMP) content of Purkinje, basket, stellate and Golgi cell plasma membrane was quantitatively assessed in freeze-fracture replicas of the cerebellum of normal rats and Weaver mutant mice. This analysis showed that, irrespective of the cell type innervated (i.e. Purkinje, stellate, basket or Golgi cells) postsynaptic membranes for parallel fibers had a relatively low IMP content in their cytoplasmic P-face (approximately equal to 750 IMP/micron2), while postsynaptic membranes for climbing, basket and stellate axons were characterized by a significantly higher IMP content (approximately equal to 1400 IMP/micron2). This difference of IMP content between the targets for parallel fibers and those for climbing, basket and stellate axons was restricted to IMP smaller than 10 nm and appeared progressively during the development of the molecular layer, suggesting a correlation between the formation of synaptic contacts and the segregation of the postsynaptic membrane in these two different domains. In addition, the study of the Weaver mice cerebellum, which is deprived of parallel fibers, but yet shows a normal IMP content in the postsynaptic membrane for the missing fibers, indicated that this characteristic IMP content is established before or during the afferent's reaching its target, and independently of whether the contact ultimately occurs.
The lateral distribution of intramembrane protein particles (IMP) in the plasma membrane of Purkinje and granule cells was quantitatively assessed in freeze-fracture replicas of the rat cerebellar cortex. In the plasma membrane of each cell type this technique showed domains with statistically significant differences in the distribution of IMP. The values were highly reproducible between different animals fixed in comparable conditions. This analysis provides an additional parameter (besides the number and size of IMP) in the assessment of neuronal membrane heterogeneity.