C-type natriuretic peptide increases chloride permeability in normal and cystic fibrosis airway cells.

C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP), a hormone which stimulates particulate guanylate cyclase activity, was studied for its ability to stimulate chloride permeability through the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) in airway epithelial cells. Two cell lines, Calu-3 and CF-T43, were used as models of normal and cystic fibrosis (CF) airway epithelial cells, respectively. Calu-3 cells, derived from a lung carcinoma, express relatively high levels of wild-type CFTR. CF-T43 is a transformed line derived from a nasal polyp and expresses the mutant CFTR, deltaF508. Calu-3 cells exposed to the nucleotide guanosine-3',5'-monophosphate (cGMP) analogue 8-Br-cGMP exhibit increased 36Cl- efflux, demonstrating that cGMP can mediate changes in chloride permeability. CNP induces a bumetanide-sensitive short circuit current across Calu-3 monolayers. Whole-cell currents stimulated by CNP display linear current-voltage relationships and have inhibitor pharmacology and ion selectivity consistent with CFTR channel activity. Sodium nitroprusside (SNP), an activator of soluble guanylate cyclase, and CNP both increase cGMP levels and short circuit current in Calu-3 cells. In contrast, exposure of CF-T43 cells to CNP resulted in an increased 36Cl- efflux rate only when combined with the adenylate cyclase agonist isoproterenol and the response was sensitive to kinase inhibitors. CF-T43 cells exposed to isoproterenol and SNP showed no increase in chloride efflux. Together, these data indicate that CNP can activate wild-type and mutant CFTR through a cAMP-dependent protein kinase pathway and that the sensitivity of Calu-3 cells for this stimulation is greater than that of the CF-T43 cells.