Pancreatic beta-cell electrical activity: the role of anions and the control of pH

The influence of chloride on the mouse pancreatic beta-cell membrane potential and the cell membrane mechanisms controlling intracellular pH (pHi) have been investigated using glass microelectrodes to monitor the membrane potential. It has been shown that chloride is distributed passively across the beta-cell membrane such that chloride potential is equal to the membrane potential. Withdrawal of perifusate chloride or bicarbonate and the application of the drugs 4-acetamido-4'-isethiocyanostilbene-2,2'-disulfonic acid (SITS) and probenecid, both blockers of transmembrane anion movement, have been used to establish that a chloride-bicarbonate exchange system is operative in the cell membrane and that it is one of the control mechanisms of pHi. Amiloride, a specific blocker of the transmembrane sodium proton exchange, has been used to demonstrate that this mechanism is also operative in the beta-cell membrane in the control of pHi. The hypothesis that the calcium-activated potassium permeability is proton sensitive at an intracellular site, a fall in pHi causing a fall in permeability and an increase in pHi causing an increase in permeability, has been used to explain many of the effects observed in this study.