Bl. Tworek et al., EFFECTS OF MONENSIN ON ETHANOL-INDUCED ALTERATIONS IN FUNCTION OF HEPATOCELLULAR ASIALOGLYCOPROTEIN RECEPTOR SUBPOPULATIONS, Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research, 22(1), 1998, pp. 97-104
Chronic ethanol consumption is associated with multiple impairments in
receptor-mediated endocytosis (RME) in hepatocytes. RME mediated by t
he asialoglycoprotein receptor seems to be especially impaired by etha
nol. In the present study, we determined susceptibility of RME to alte
rations in ethanol-fed and pair-fed control animals by the addition of
a carboxylic ionophore, monensin. Monensin inhibits acidification of
prelysosomal vesicular compartments, which results in a decrease in th
e rate of receptor-ligand dissociation within the cell. Low levels (25
mu M) of monensin have been shown to preferentially affect receptor-l
igand dissociation of one subset (state 2) of asialoglycoprotein recep
tor, whereas dissociation in a second subset (state 1 receptors) seems
to be relatively unaffected. We examined whether ethanol treatment pr
eferentially affected one or another of these receptor subpopulations.
Male Wistar rats were fed a standard ethanol-containing (36% of calor
ies) or control diet for 10 to 14 weeks, and hepatocytes were prepared
from the animals. Similar to previous results from our laboratory, su
rface and total ligand and antibody binding were decreased by 30 to 45
% (p < 0.01) in ethanol animals, compared with controls. An ethanol-in
duced impairment of receptor-ligand dissociation was also apparent in
these cells, as shown by increased ratios of bound-to-free ligand duri
ng continuous endocytosis. After monensin treatment, surface receptors
on both ethanol and control cells showed a similar pattern of redistr
ibution to the cell interior and intracellular inactivation. When kine
tics of intracellular receptor-ligand dissociation were examined upon
addition of monensin, the bound-to-free ligand ratios in both control
and ethanol cells increased dramatically and to an equal extent. These
results indicate that, in the ethanol animals, the pattern of sensiti
vity to monensin is unchanged relative to controls. Thus, the relative
proportion of state 1 and state 2 receptor populations do not seem to
be affected after long-term feeding, and ethanol may be a perturbant
that affects both state I and state 2 receptor function.