Protein Disulfide Isomerase Regulates Sickle Erythrocyte Volume Via ET-1 Dependent Casein Kinase II Mechanism

Abstract 2114

Disordered K⁺ efflux and osmotically induced water loss leads to red blood cell (RBC) dehydration and plays a role in the pathophysiology of Sickle Cell Disease. We previously reported that activation of endothelin-1 (ET-1) receptors in sickle erythrocyte was partially responsible for dense sickle cell formation. However, the mechanism by which ET-1 regulates RBC volume remains unclear. Serine/threonine kinases have been shown to regulate K⁺ transport in RBC. Casein Kinase II (CK2), a serine/threonine kinase, phosphorylates acidic proteins, regulates calmodulin activity and cytoskeletal proteins and is present in RBC. CK2 activity is blocked by apigenin, emodin, heparin, and ornithine decarboxylase. Previous reports have shown a role for flavonoids such as apigenin as substrates for erythrocyte plasma membrane oxidoreductases. We recently observed a role for Protein Disulfide Isomerase (PDI) in regulating cellular hydration and K⁺ efflux in human RBC. PDI catalyzes disulfide interchange reactions in the plasma membrane, mediates redox modifications and is up-regulated under hypoxic conditions. However the relationship between CK2 and PDI in the setting of cellular hydration status is un-explored. Our results indicate that erythrocyte membrane CK2 activity increases when sickle cells are incubated with 500 nM ET-1 for 30 min (2.8 ± 0.1 to 4.9 ± 0.01 nmol/min/mL * 10⁶ cell) an event that is blunted by pre-incubation with the ET-1 B receptor blocker, BQ788 (2.5 ± 0.1 nmol/min/mL * 10⁶ cell, n=3, p<0.04) and 20 μM apigenin (2.7 ± 0.4 nmol/min/mL * 10⁶ cell, n=3, p<0.04). We examined the role of CK2 activation on cellular dehydration. We incubated sickle erythrocytes for 3 hours in deoxygenation-oxygenation cycles in the presence or absence of 20μM apigenin or 2μM 4,5,6,7-tetrabromobenzotriazole (TBB), a specific CK2 inhibitor, and measured the changes in erythrocyte density by phthalate oil density analysis. We observed that inhibition of CK2 led to reduced deoxygenation-stimulated cellular dehydration in sickle erythrocytes by apigenin (D₅₀= 1.106 to 1.100 g/mL) or TBB (D₅₀ =1.097 g/mL). We then studied the role of CK2 inhibitors on PDI activity by Insulin Turbidity Assay and observed that apigenin and TBB led to significant reductions in PDI activity in vitro (64% and 42% respectively). We also studied the effects of the flavonoids: naringenin, naringin, apigenin and rutin on PDI activity and observed reductions in PDI activity that were greater with apigenin>rutin>TBB>naringin>naringenin (n=2, P<0.05). Furthermore, we observed that K+ flux via Gardos channel activation is correlated with PDI activity in vitro in sickle erythrocytes. Taken together our results implicate CK2 and PDI as intermediate regulators of ET-1 stimulated cellular volume systems in red blood cells. Supported by NIH R01-HL09632 to AR.