Control of intracellular pH in rat calvarial osteoblasts: coexistence of both chloride-bicarbonate and sodium-hydrogen exchange.

Intracellular pH was monitored continuously in cultured rat calvarial osteoblasts using the pH-sensitive fluorescent dye bis carboxyethyl carboxyfluorescein (BCECF), loaded into the cells as its membrane permeant ester. Recovery from an intracellular acid load generated by exposure to NH4Cl was unaffected by the anion exchange inhibitors 4-acetamido-4'-isothiocyanato-stilbene-2,2'-disuphonic acid (SITS) and 4,4'-diisothiocyanato-stilbene 2,2'-disuphonic acid (DIDS) (100 microM), but blocked by the sodium-hydrogen exchange inhibitor amiloride (1 mM) and dependent on external sodium, suggesting that recovery is brought about by a sodium-hydrogen exchanger in the plasma membrane. The cells do, however, possess a SITS-sensitive chloride-bicarbonate exchanger, because iso-osmotic replacement of chloride by gluconate leads to intracellular alkalinization, that is inhibited by SITS, but independent of external sodium. Parathyroid hormone brings about an intracellular acidification, which may be due to an inhibiton of sodium-hydrogen exchange.