Selective release of apical membrane enzymes from cultured renal epithelia by phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C.

Membrane proteins can be attached to the plasma membrane in several ways. Recently, a mechanism has been described, by which a number of cell surface proteins are anchored to the exoplasmic side of the plasma membrane by covalent linkage to glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol (GPI). The growth properties of renal epithelial cells in tissue culture enable free access to apical cell surface and brush border membrane proteins. To study the nature of membrane anchoring of apical plasma membrane enzymes in cultured renal epithelial cells, confluent LLC-PK1, OK, NRK, and MDCK epithelia were treated in tissue culture dishes with bacterial phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC), and the PI-PLC-specific release into the tissue culture medium of the apical membrane enzymes alkaline phosphatase (AP), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, leucine aminopeptidase, trehalase, and maltase was determined. Of the five enzymes tested, AP and trehalase, already described as GPI-anchored membrane proteins, were specifically released by PI-PLC from intact cell monolayers. Of the four cell lines investigated, LLC-PK1 cells express AP and trehalase which were released by PI-PLC. In OK cells, which lack AP activity, only trehalase was found to have PI-PLC-releaseable enzyme activity. MDCK cells, on the other hand, express AP activity, releaseable by PI-PLC, but no trehalase activity. In studies on the time course of synthesis and reinsertion of AP into the apical membrane of LLC-PK1 cells after removal by PI-PLC, a 60% recovery of AP activity was obtained only after 7 days. Analysis of protein release by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of culture supernatants after surface labeling with biotin and subsequent Western blotting with streptavidin revealed four protein bands at approximately 130, 90, 30, and 20 kD in LLC-PK1 cells and five GPI-anchored proteins at 110, 85, 65, 40, and 26 kD in OK cultures. The finding of a PI-PLC-specific release of apical membrane enzymes from renal tubular cell lines of different species (pig, opossum, rat, and dog) and of different nephron origin indicates a high conservation of the GPI anchor of renal brush border membrane proteins and further proves the high degree of differentiation retained by the cell lines in tissue culture. In addition, this method may provide a possible tool for isolating GPI-anchored apical membrane proteins from intact epithelial monolayer cultures.