Distinct protein kinase C isozymes mediates inhibitory effects of different G-protein coupled receptors on cardiac rapidly activating delayed rectifier K ~ current

Aim Evidence has shown that stimulation of alA-adrenorecetors receptor （alA-AR） or angiotensin II type 1 receptor （AT1R） acutely down-regulates the rapid component of the delayed rectifier K ＋ current （IKr） via protein kinase C （PKC）. This study was designed to investigate which PKC isozymes mediate down-regulations of IKr by alA-AR and AT1R. Method The whole-cell patch-clamp technique was used to record IKr in native cardio- myocytes and in human embryonic kidney （HEK） 293 cells co-transfected with human ether-a-go-go related gene （hERG） encoding α-subunit of IKr and human alA-AR or AT1R gene. Result In isolated guinea-pig ventricular cardiomyocytes the inhibitory action of Ang II on IKr was little affected by Go6976 （selectively inhibiting PKCα, β and γ） and Go6983 （selectively inhibiting PKCα, β, γ , δ, and ζ）, but was significantly antagonized by an inter- nal dialysis with PKCe-selective inhibitory peptide εV1 -2. In contrast, the inhibitory action of alA-AR agonist A61603 on IKr was remarkably attenuated by Go6976 or Go6983, but not affected by peptide εV1 -2. Moreover, specific PKC-selective inhibitory peptide antagonized the effect of A61603. The results suggested that PKCe and PKCα isoform respectively mediated the inhibitory effect of AT1R and a1A-AR. In heterologous expression system, both PKCα and e-selective activator peptides down regulated hERG current with different manner. PKCα activator peptide shifted the activation curve of the channel to the right, but PKCe-selective activator peptide did not. Simi- larly, A61603 shifted the activation curve to the right, whereas Ang Ⅱ had no effect. In addition, both A61603 and PKCα activator peptide showed inhibitory action on bERG A PKC current （an bERG mutant in which 17 of the 18 ROSITE-predicted PKC acceptor serines/threonines were changed to alanine） with a similar potency to wild type bERG current. But, both Ang Ⅱ and PKCe-selective activator peptide exhibited no effects on bERG △ PKC cur- rent. The results indicated that PKCα and PKCe isoforms down-regulated bERG current through different mecha- nism. Conclusion PKCα and PKCe isoform respectively mediates the inhibition on IKr by stimulation of AT1R and alA-AR via different molecular mechanism.