Extracellular calcium and cholinergic stimulation of isolated canine parietal cells

The role of calcium gating in cholinergic stimulation of the function of parietal cells was studied using cells isolated from canine fundic mucosa by treatment with collagenase and EDTA and enriched by velocity separation in an elutriator rotor. Monitoring the accumulation of [14C[ aminopyrine as an index of parietal cell response, stimulation by carbachol, but not by histamine, was highly dependent upon the concentration of extracellular calcium. Incubation of parietal cells in 0-.1 mM calcium, rather than the usual 1.8 mM concentration, reduced the response to 100 microM carbachol by 92 +/- 2%, whereas histamine stimulation was impaired by 28 +/- 5%. A similar reduction in extracellular calcium suppressed the response to gastrin (100 nM) by 67 +/- 7%. The impairment of cholinergic stimulation found at low extracellular calcium concentrations was rapidly reversed with the readdition of calcium. Lanthanum, which blocks calcium movement across membranes, caused a similar pattern of effects on secretagogue stimulation of aminopyrine accumulation, with 100 microM lanthanum suppressing carbachol stimulation by 83 +/- 2%. This concentration of lanthanum suppressed gastrin stimulation by 40 +/- 7% and histamine stimulation by only 12 +/- 9%. Carbachol, but not histamine nor gastrin, stimulated 45Ca++ uptake. The magnitude of carbachol-stimulated calcium uptake correlated with the parietal cell content of the fractions examined (r = 0.88), and was dose responsive over carbachol concentrations from 1 microM to 1 mM. Atropine (100 nM) caused surmountable inhibition, and these effects of carbachol and atropine on calcium uptake correlated with their effects on oxygen consumption (r = 0.93) and [14C]-aminopyrine accumulation (r = 0.90). Cells preloaded with 45Ca++ lost cellular calcium in a time-dependent fashion; however, this rate of egress was not accelerated by treatment with histamine, gastrin, or carbachol, thus failing to implicate mobilization of intracellular calcium as primary mechanism for activation of parietal cell function. These data indicate a close link between stimulation of parietal cell function and enhancement of calcium influx by cholinergic agents.