Dietary K intake regulates the response of apical K channels to adenosine in the thick ascending limb.

We used the patch-clamp technique to study the effect of adenosine on the apical 70-pS K channel in the thick ascending limb (TAL) of the rat kidney. Application of 1 microM cyclohexyladenosine (CHA), an adenosine analog, stimulated apical 70-pS K channel activity and increased the product of channel open probability and channel number (NP(o)) from 0.34 to 0.7. Also, addition of CGS-21680, a specific A(2a) adenosine receptor agonist, mimicked the effect of CHA and increased NP(o) from 0.33 to 0.77. The stimulatory effect of CHA and CGS-21680 was completely blocked by H89, an inhibitor of protein kinase A (PKA), or by inhibition of adenylate cyclase with SQ-22536. This suggests that the stimulatory effect of adenosine analogs is mediated by a PKA-dependent pathway. The effect of adenosine analog was almost absent in the TAL from rats on a K-deficient (KD) diet for 7 days. Application of DDMS, an agent that inhibits cytochrome P-450 hydrolase, not only significantly increased the activity of the 70-pS K channel but also restored the stimulatory effect of CHA on the 70-pS K channel in the TAL from rats on a KD diet. Also, the effect of CHA was absent in the presence of 20-HETE. Inhibition of PKA blocked the stimulatory effect of CHA on the apical 70-pS K channel in the presence of DDMS in the TAL from rats on a KD diet. We conclude that stimulation of adenosine receptor increases the apical 70-pS K channel activity via a PKA-dependent pathway and that the effect of adenosine on the apical 70-pS K channel is suppressed by low-K intake. Moreover, the diminished response to adenosine is the result of increase in 20-HETE formation, which inhibits the cAMP-dependent pathway in the TAL from rats on a KD diet.