Reconstitution in vitro of neurotoxin-responsive ion efflux by using membrane glycoproteins of neuroblastoma cells.

Glycoproteins were purified from a clonal cell line of mouse neuroblastoma, N-18, labeled metabolically with L-[3H]fucose. The purified radioactive glycoproteins were reconstituted into artificial phosphatidylcholine vesicles. When the vesicles were preloaded with cesium acetate and treated with neurotoxins to activate the Na+ channel, a shift in intravesicular density was observed to a less dense position after centrifugation on sucrose gradients. This shift was partially inhibited by tetrodotoxin, which prevents the activation of the Na+ channel. A similarly derived fraction of [14C]fucose-containing glycoproteins from a neuroblastoma cell line that does not possess excitable membranes, N1A-103, was reconstituted into phospholipid vesicles, and, after preloading with cesium ions, the fraction was combined with those of the 3H-labeled glycoproteins of the differentiated cells, N-18, which have excitable membranes. Only the 3H-labeled glycoprotein-containing vesicles were responsive to the neurotoxins, as shown by a shift in intravesicular density on sucrose gradients. These results are interpreted as a demonstration of the reconstitution of glycoproteins to form the activated Na+ channel. Comparison of the radioactive glycoprotein profiles after polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed that glycoproteins of Mr 200,000, Mr 165,000, and Mr 65,000 were common to the reconstituted fractions that were biologically active.