Electrogenic Na-independent HCO3 transport in OK cells

We have shown previously that OK cells recover from an acid load in a medium nominally CO2-free by extruding H via a Na/H exchanger and a passive H-conductive pathway. In this work, the regulation of cell pH (pHi) was studied after addition or withdrawal of CO2/HCO3 (5% CO2, 95 mM HCO3, pH = 8) using the fluoroprobe BCECF. In the presence of Na and amiloride to inhibit Na/H exchange, the recovery of pHi after CO2 entry and CO2 exit were found to depend in part on HCO3 entry and exit, respectively. Efflux of H per se also contributed to restoring pHi after CO2 addition, whereas H influx may have played a smaller role to normalize pHi after CO2 removal. DIDS, 0.5 mM, significantly inhibited both recovery phases of pHi. Removal of Na failed to inhibit the recovery of pHi after CO2 addition and removal. Cl removal also failed to inhibit pHi recovery after CO2 removal. Cell depolarization in the presence of Na moderately stimulated the pHi recovery rate after CO2 addition whereas it markedly inhibited the normalization of pHi after CO2 removal. Cell depolarization in the absence of sodium had only a slight effect to increase pHi recovery after CO2 addition but markedly prevented the pHi recovery after CO2 removal. These results indicate that OK cells lack Na or Cl-dependent HCO3 transport systems. The OK cell possesses a novel stilbene-sensitive electrogenic HCO3 transport system that is involved in the regulation of cell pH.