Comparative evaluation of the effect of pharmacological agents on endocytosis and coendocytosis of IgE by rat basophilic leukaemia cells.

The aggregation of IgE bound to rat basophilic leukaemia (RBL) cells leads to the exocytosis of mediators, the endocytosis of the antigen-aggregated mouse IgE anti-DNP, as well as the coendocytosis of some unaggregated monomeric rat IgE (IR162) and/or unbound receptors. We describe here the relative effect on endocytosis and coendocytosis of various pharmacological agents that block or enhance exocytosis. We have previously shown that, unlike exocytosis, endocytosis by RBL and normal rat mast cells was independent of extracellular calcium. We show here that the presence of calcium chelators or antagonists also had no effect on endocytosis of cross-linked IgE. However, coendocytosis of non-cross-linked IgE was partially inhibited by the elimination of extracellular calcium and the addition of calcium chelators such as EDTA or EGTA-Mg2+. Moreover, the addition of calcium antagonists such as Ni2+ and Co2+ (5 mM) to an incubation mixture containing Ca2+ (1 mM) resulted in the complete inhibition of coendocytosis without affecting endocytosis. Other inhibitors of exocytosis such as sodium azide (10-2M), quercetin (10-4M) and dibutyryl cyclic AMP (10-2 M) blocked coendocytosis completely but had no effect on endocytosis. Sodium azide (10 mM) in combination with 2-deoxyglucose (10 mM) effectively inhibited (90%) endocytosis. Cytochalasin B (10-4 M), which was shown to enhance serotonin release, had no effect on the extent of endocytosis or coendocytosis observed 20 min after the initiation of aggregation. Thus, in RBL cells, endocytosis, coendocytosis and exocytosis exhibit distinguishable sensitivities to some pharmacological drugs.