title: Effects of the carcinogen dimethylhydrazine (DMH) on the function of rat colonic crypts.
abstract: Rats injected with dimethylhydrazine for 5 weeks (DMH, 40 mg/kg body weight) invariably develop colonic cancer after a latency of some 10-14 weeks. Preliminary studies have suggested that Na+ absorption by surface colonic crypt cells is attenuated in the preneoplastic period (8-12 weeks after the first injection of DMH). The present study of glucocorticoid-treated (dexamethasone 6 mg/kg body weight, s.c. 3 days or triamcinolone 30 mg/kg body weight, s.c. 3 days) rats was undertaken to examine the ion transport properties of rat distal colon during this period in more detail. Ussing chamber studies of the distal colon and whole-cell patch-clamp measurements in surface cells, mid-crypt cells and crypt-base cells obtained from isolated crypts were performed. In Ussing chamber studies the equivalent short-circuit current inhibitable by amiloride (10 micromol/l) DMH-treated rats was about 40% of control. In addition, the hyperpolarizing effect of amiloride (10 micromol/l) on membrane voltage (Vm) was strongly attenuated in surface and mid-crypt cells of DMH-treated rats. Carbachol (CCH, 100 micromol/l), which predictably hyperpolarized surface, mid-crypt cells and crypt-base cells of control rats, had no significant effect on Vm in DMH-treated rats, but increased membrane conductance (Gm) significantly. This indicates that CCH probably activates both Cl- and K+ channels in all three colonic crypt compartments in the DMH-treated rats. Forskolin (5 micromol/l), which has the most pronounced effect in crypt-base cells in control rats, depolarized Vm and enhanced Gm in all three compartments in DMH-treated rats. These data indicate that DMH profoundly alters Na+ and Cl- transport in colonic crypts prior to the appearance of colonic adenocarcinoma and that these effects can be summarized as follows: (1) the Na+ conductance of surface cells is attenuated; (2) cells along the length of the crypt-lumen axis tend to lose their normal response to CCH and instead show simultaneous and comparable increases in K+and Cl- conductances; (3) the effect of forskolin is enhanced along the entire crypt axis. As a result colonic crypt transport is shifted to predominant Cl- secretion, findings which are characteristic of colonic carcinoma cell lines such as HT29 and T84 cells.
authors.affiliation: Physiologisches Institut der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Hermann-Herder-Strasse 7, D-79104 Freiburg i. Br., Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bleich
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ecke
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fraser
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Greger
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003106:Colon / Q000187:drug effects*; D004127:Dimethylhydrazines / Q000633:toxicity*; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000187:drug effects; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D004127:Dimethylhydrazines