Calcium mobilization-associated and independent cytosolic acidification elicited in tandem with Na+/H+ exchanger activation in target cell-adherent human NK cells.

Flow cytometry was used to identify mechanisms by which human NK cells regulate intracellular pH (pHi) and to investigate the relationship between NK cell pHi and cytolytic function. Temporally resolved determinations of pHi were simultaneously made in NK cells that formed conjugates with target cells (NKC) and unconjugated NK cells (NKU) on the basis of the red/orange fluorescence emission ratio of the pH indicator seminapthylrhodafluor-1. Two pHi regulatory mechanisms were identified in NK cells: 1) a HCO3-/Cl- antiport that promoted pHi changes in response to variation of extracellular HCO3- and Cl- but not Na+ ion concentrations, was sensitive to stilbene derivatives 4,4'-diisothiocyanatostilbene sulfonic acid and 4-acetamido-4'-isothyocyanotostilbene-2-2'-disulfonic acid, and exhibited similar activity in NKC and NKU, and 2) a Na+/H+ exchanger that promoted pHi changes in response to extracellular Na+ ion concentration changes and was sensitive to dimethylamiloride (DMA), permeable to Na+ and Li+ but not K+ or N-methyl-D-glucamine, and quiescent in NKU but activated in target cell-adherent NKC. When Na+/H+ exchange was blocked with 10 microM DMA, the pHi of NKC bound to NK-sensitive K562 target cells progressively decreased for 3 to 4 min, then stabilized at 0.1 to 0.15 pH units below the pHi of NKU. A significant temporal decline in NKC pHi also occurred in the nominal absence of extracellular Ca2+ (0.07 +/- 0.02 pH units) and when NKC formed conjugates with NK-resistant B lymphoblastoid target cells that failed to mobilize NK cell Ca2+ (0.07 +/- 0.01 pH units) (mean +/- SD). However, the magnitude of the NKC cytosolic acidification response was consistently reduced (42 +/- 4 and 44 +/- 6%, respectively) under these Ca2+ flux response-limiting conditions. Thus, adhesion to target cells triggered two pHi-related responses in NK cells: 1) a decline in pHi which exhibited both Ca2+ mobilization-dependent and -independent components, and 2) Na+/H+ exchanger activation by which acid production was neutralized. Manipulations of HCO3- and DMA that clamped NKC pHi at values ranging from 6.8 to 7.2 failed to significantly influence NK cell cytolytic function. By contrast, isosmotic replacement of extracellular Na+ with NMDG resulted in a 57 +/- 22% inhibition of NK cell-mediated cytolysis (n = 8, p < 0.01). NKC pHi declined to 6.8 to 6.9 under these conditions, but this was not the apparent basis of impaired cytolysis because sustained elevation of NKC pHi by addition of dimethylamine failed to significantly reverse inhibition.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)