A chloride channel widely expressed in epithelial and non-epithelial cells

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Item Type:	Article
Title:	A chloride channel widely expressed in epithelial and non-epithelial cells
Creators Name:	Thiemann, A., Gruender, S., Pusch, M. and Jentsch, T.J.
Abstract:	Chloride channels have several functions, including the regulation of cell volume, stabilizing membrane potential, signal transduction and transepithelial transport. The plasma membrane Cl- channels already cloned belong to different structural classes: ligand-gated channels, voltage-gated channels, and possibly transporters of the ATP-binding-cassette type (if the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator is a Cl- channel). The importance of chloride channels is illustrated by the phenotypes that can result from their malfunction: cystic fibrosis, in which transepithelial transport is impaired, and myotonia, in which ClC-1, the principal skeletal muscle Cl- channel, is defective. Here we report the properties of ClC-2, a new member of the voltage-gated Cl- channel family. Its sequence is approximately 50% identical to either the Torpedo electroplax Cl- channel, ClC-0 (ref. 8), or the rat muscle Cl- channel, ClC-1 (ref. 9). Isolated initially from rat heart and brain, it is also expressed in pancreas, lung and liver, for example, and in pure cell lines of fibroblastic, neuronal, and epithelial origin, including tissues and cells affected by cystic fibrosis. Expression in Xenopus oocytes induces Cl- currents that activate slowly upon hyperpolarization and display a linear instantaneous current-voltage relationship. The conductivity sequence is Cl- greater than or equal to Br- greater than I-. The presence of ClC-2 in such different cell types contrasts with the highly specialized expression of ClC-1 (ref. 9) and also with the cloned cation channels, and suggests that its function is important for most cells.
Keywords:	Amino Acid Sequence, Base Sequence, Northern Blotting, Cell Line, Chloride Channels, Chlorides, Electric Conductivity, Membrane Proteins, Molecular Sequence Data, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Animals, Rats
Source:	Nature
ISSN:	0028-0836
Publisher:	Nature Publishing Group
Volume:	356
Number:	6364
Page Range:	57-60
Date:	5 March 1992
Official Publication:	https://doi.org/10.1038/356057a0
PubMed:	View item in PubMed

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