Chloride channels and endocytosis: new insights from Dent's disease and CLC-5 knockout mice

Dent's disease is an hereditary renal tubular disorder characterized by low-molecular-weight (LMW) proteinuria, hypercalciuria and nephrolithiasis. The disease is due to mutations of CLC-5, a member of the family of voltage-gated CLC chloride channels. CLC-5 is distributed in cells lining the proximal tubule (PT) of the kidney, where it co-localizes with albumin-containing endocytic vesicles that form part of the receptor-mediated endocytic pathway that mediates the reabsorption of low-molecular-weight (LMW) proteins filtered at the glomerular level. Since progression along the endocytic apparatus requires endosomal acidification, it has been suggested that dysfunction of CLC-5 in endosomes may lead to inefficient reabsorption of LMW proteins and dysfunction of PT cells. Investigations conducted in a CLC-5 knockout (KO) mouse model harbouring all the characteristic renal tubular defects of Dent's disease showed a severe impairment of endocytosis by PT cells, such that the endocytic tracer peroxidase was poorly transferred into early endocytic vesicles. These data demonstrated that an impairment of receptor-mediated endocytosis in PT cells is the basis for the defective uptake of LMW proteins in patients with Dent's disease. The endocytosis and processing of LMW proteins involves the multiligand tandem receptors, megalin and cubilin, that are abundantly expressed at the brush border of PT cells. The characterization of the endocytic defect in CLC-5 KO mice revealed that ligands of both megalin and cubilin were affected, whereas a decrease in total kidney content of megalin and cubilin at the protein level was detected. Using analytical subcellular fractionation and quantitative immunogold labelling, we demonstrated a selective disappearance of megalin and cubilin at the brush border of PT cells. These observations allowed us to conclude that defective protein endocytosis linked to CLC-5 inactivation is due to a major and selective loss of megalin and cubilin at the brush border, reflecting a trafficking defect in renal PT cells. These results improve our understanding of Dent's disease, taken as a paradigm for renal Fanconi syndrome and nephrolithiasis, and demonstrate multiple roles for CLC-5 in the kidney. These studies also provided insights in important functions such as apical endocytosis, handling of proteins by renal tubular cells, calcium metabolism, and urinary acidification.