Activation of autosomal recessive Pseudohypoaldosteronism1 ENaC with aldosterone

The mineralocorticoid hormone aldosterone stimulates sodium reabsorption in the collecting ducts by increasing the activity of the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC). Being a rate-liming channel the loss of function mutations caused Pseudohypoaldosteronism 1 (PHA1). Despite elevated plasma aldosterone in PHA 1 patients the modulation of PHA 1 causing ENaC mutants with hormone has never been studied. After recording control ENaC current in PHA1 causing ENaC stop codon mutants we demonstrated the activation of aldosterone in the whole cell as well as single channel patch clamp assays. Single channel recoding experiments demonstrated that aldosterone can increase the open probability of all analyzed PHA 1 stop codon mutants and WT. Additionally, we demonstrated by western blot experiments that aldosterone can increase the expression of WT and PHA 1 stop codon mutants. Extensive whole cell patch clamp experiments demonstrated that C-terminal γ ENaC domain is necessary for aldosterone to activate whole cell current in HEK-293 cells. This novel finding of γ ENaC C-terminus dependent activation of whole cell current by aldosterone could alter our understanding of ENaC-mediated sodium reabsorption in the aldosterone-sensitive distal nephron (ASDN).