GPI-anchored carbonic anhydrase IV displays both intra- and extracellular activity in cRNA-injected oocytes and in mouse neurons.

Soluble cytosolic carbonic anhydrases (CAs) are well known to participate in pH regulation of the cytoplasm of mammalian cells. Membrane-bound CA isoforms--such as isoforms IV, IX, XII, XIV, and XV--also catalyze the reversible conversion of carbon dioxide to protons and bicarbonate, but at the extracellular face of the cell membrane. When human CA isoform IV was heterologously expressed in Xenopus oocytes, we observed, by measuring H(+) at the outer face of the cell membrane and in the cytosol with ion-selective microelectrodes, not only extracellular catalytic CA activity but also robust intracellular activity. CA IV expression in oocytes was confirmed by immunocytochemistry, and CA IV activity measured by mass spectrometry. Extra- and intracellular catalytic activity of CA IV could be pharmacologically dissected using benzolamide, the CA inhibitor, which is relatively slowly membrane-permeable. In acute cerebellar slices of mutant mice lacking CA IV, cytosolic H(+) shifts of granule cells following CO(2) removal/addition were significantly slower than in wild-type mice. Our results suggest that membrane-associated CA IV contributes robust catalytic activity intracellularly, and that this activity participates in regulating H(+) dynamics in the cytosol, both in injected oocytes and in mouse neurons.

Carbonic anhydrase XIV deficiency produces a functional defect in the retinal light response.

Members of the carbonic anhydrase (CA) family play an important role in the regulation of pH, CO(2), ion, and water transport. CA IV and CA XIV are membrane-bound isozymes expressed in the eye. CA IV immunostaining is limited to the choriocapillaris overlying the retina, whereas CA XIV is expressed within the retina in Müller glial cells and retinal pigment epithelium. Here, we have characterized the physiological and morphological phenotype of the CA IV-null, CA XIV-null, and CA IV/CA XIV-double-null mouse retinas. Flash electroretinograms performed at 2, 7, and 10 months of age showed that the rod/cone a-wave, b-wave, and cone b-wave were significantly reduced (26-45%) in the CA XIV-null mice compared with wild-type littermates. Reductions in the dark-adapted response were not progressive between 2 and 10 months, and no differences in retinal morphology were observed between wild-type and CA XIV-null mice. Müller cells and rod bipolar cells had a normal appearance. Retinas of CA IV-null mice showed no functional or morphological differences compared with normal littermates. However, CA IV/CA XIV double mutants showed a greater deficit in light response than the CA XIV-null retina. Our results indicate that CA XIV, which regulates extracellular pH and pCO(2), plays an important part in producing a normal retinal light response. A larger functional deficit in the CA IV/CA XIV double mutants suggests that CA IV can also contribute to pH regulation, at least in the absence of CA XIV.