Central nervous system effects of whole-body proton irradiation.

Space missions beyond the protection of Earth's magnetosphere expose astronauts to an environment that contains ionizing proton radiation. The hazards that proton radiation pose to normal tissues, such as the central nervous system (CNS), are not fully understood, although it has been shown that proton radiation affects the neurogenic environment, killing neural precursors and altering behavior. To determine the time and dose-response characteristics of the CNS to whole-body proton irradiation, C57BL/6J mice were exposed to 1 GeV/n proton radiation at doses of 0-200 cGy and behavioral, physiological and immunohistochemical end points were analyzed over a range of time points (48 h-12 months) postirradiation. These experiments revealed that proton radiation exposure leads to: 1. an acute decrease in cell division within the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, with significant differences detected at doses as low as 10 cGy; 2. a persistent effect on proliferation in the subgranular zone, at 1 month postirradiation; 3. a decrease in neurogenesis at doses as low as 50 cGy, at 3 months postirradiation; and 4. a decrease in hippocampal ICAM-1 immunoreactivity at doses as low as 10 cGy, at 1 month postirradiation. The data presented contribute to our understanding of biological responses to whole-body proton radiation and may help reduce uncertainty in the assessment of health risks to astronauts. These findings may also be relevant to clinical proton beam therapy.

International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology. LXXVI. Current progress in the mammalian TRP ion channel family.

Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels are a large family of ion channel proteins, surpassed in number in mammals only by voltage-gated potassium channels. TRP channels are activated and regulated through strikingly diverse mechanisms, making them suitable candidates for cellular sensors. They respond to environmental stimuli such as temperature, pH, osmolarity, pheromones, taste, and plant compounds, and intracellular stimuli such as Ca(2+) and phosphatidylinositol signal transduction pathways. However, it is still largely unknown how TRP channels are activated in vivo. Despite the uncertainties, emerging evidence using TRP channel knockout mice indicates that these channels have broad function in physiology. Here we review the recent progress on the physiology, pharmacology and pathophysiological function of mammalian TRP channels.

Measuring the influence of the BKCa {beta}1 subunit on Ca2+ binding to the BKCa channel.

The large-conductance Ca(2+)-activated potassium (BK(Ca)) channel of smooth muscle is unusually sensitive to Ca(2+) as compared with the BK(Ca) channels of brain and skeletal muscle. This is due to the tissue-specific expression of the BK(Ca) auxiliary subunit beta1, whose presence dramatically increases both the potency and efficacy of Ca(2+) in promoting channel opening. beta1 contains no Ca(2+) binding sites of its own, and thus the mechanism by which it increases the BK(Ca) channel's Ca(2+) sensitivity has been of some interest. Previously, we demonstrated that beta1 stabilizes voltage sensor activation, such that activation occurs at more negative voltages with beta1 present. This decreases the work that Ca(2+) must do to open the channel and thereby increases the channel's apparent Ca(2+) affinity without altering the real affinities of the channel's Ca(2+) binding sites. To explain the full effect of beta1 on the channel's Ca(2+) sensitivity, however, we also proposed that there must be effects of beta1 on Ca(2+) binding. Here, to test this hypothesis, we have used high-resolution Ca(2+) dose-response curves together with binding site-specific mutations to measure the effects of beta1 on Ca(2+) binding. We find that coexpression of beta1 alters Ca(2+) binding at both of the BK(Ca) channel's two types of high-affinity Ca(2+) binding sites, primarily increasing the affinity of the RCK1 sites when the channel is open and decreasing the affinity of the Ca(2+) bowl sites when the channel is closed. Both of these modifications increase the difference in affinity between open and closed, such that Ca(2+) binding at either site has a larger effect on channel opening when beta1 is present.

Measurements of the BKCa channel's high-affinity Ca2+ binding constants: effects of membrane voltage.

It has been established that the large conductance Ca(2+)-activated K(+) channel contains two types of high-affinity Ca(2+) binding sites, termed the Ca(2+) bowl and the RCK1 site. The affinities of these sites, and how they change as the channel opens, is still a subject of some debate. Previous estimates of these affinities have relied on fitting a series of conductance-voltage relations determined over a series of Ca(2+) concentrations with models of channel gating that include both voltage sensing and Ca(2+) binding. This approach requires that some model of voltage sensing be chosen, and differences in the choice of voltage-sensing model may underlie the different estimates that have been produced. Here, to better determine these affinities we have measured Ca(2+) dose-response curves of channel activity at constant voltage for the wild-type mSlo channel (minus its low-affinity Ca(2+) binding site) and for channels that have had one or the other Ca(2+) binding site disabled via mutation. To accurately determine these dose-response curves we have used a series of 22 Ca(2+) concentrations, and we have used unitary current recordings, coupled with changes in channel expression level, to measure open probability over five orders of magnitude. Our results indicate that at -80 mV the Ca(2+) bowl has higher affinity for Ca(2+) than does the RCK1 site in both the opened and closed conformations of the channel, and that the binding of Ca(2+) to the RCK1 site is voltage dependent, whereas at the Ca(2+) bowl it is not.