Sialic acid and the surface charge of delayed rectifier potassium channels

We used the whole-cell configuration of the patch-clamp technique and cultured ventricular myocytes from 7-day embryonic chicks to test the hypothesis that sialic acid residues (NANA) constitute the negative surface charge associated with delayed rectifier potassium channels. Delayed rectifier current (iK) was elicited at potentials between -40 and +60 mV. The existence of negative fixed charges close to the "gating sensor" was confirmed by a 6.8-mV negative shift of the half-activation potential (V1/2) following a 10-fold reduction of divalent cations and a 22.6-mV position shift following the addition of 10 mM NiCl2. An 8.4-mV increase in the Boltzmann equation slope factor (k) in the former experiment and a 5.5-mV decline in the latter suggested that the surface charge is not uniformly distributed. We used a high performance liquid chromatography procedure to detect freed sarcolemmal NANA and found that 71-88% was released by neuraminidase (0.2-2.0 U/ml) during 1-h treatments. Such treatments had no significant effect upon the amplitudes of iK or V1/2. On the other hand, k was increased significantly by the enzyme (2.0 U/ml), but only when Ca2+ was present. Finally, 1-h pre-treatments with neuraminidase (2.0 U/ml) had no effect on the positive shift of V1/2 induced by Ni2+. We conclude that although sarcolemmal NANA may bind Ca2+, it does not constitute the surface charge of delayed rectifier potassium channels.