Cell volume regulation in response to hypotonicity is impaired in HeLa cells expressing a protein kinase Calpha mutant lacking kinase activity.

The chloride conductance (G(Cl,swell)) that participates in the regulatory volume decrease process triggered by osmotic swelling in HeLa cells was impaired by removal of extracellular Ca(2+), depletion of intracellular Ca(2+) stores with thapsigargin, or by preloading the cells with BAPTA-AM (1,2-bis(2-aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid). Furthermore, overnight exposure to the phorbol ester tetradecanoyl phorbol acetate and acute incubation with inhibitors of the conventional protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms bisindolylmaleimide I and Gö6976 inhibited G(Cl,swell). Treatment of HeLa cells with U73122, a phospholipase C inhibitor, also prevented G(Cl,swell). Hypotonicity induced selective PKC alpha accumulation in the membrane/cytoskeleton fraction in fractionation experiments and translocation of a green fluorescent protein-PKC alpha fusion protein to the plasma membrane of transiently transfected HeLa cells. To further explore the role of PKCs in hypotonicity-induced G(Cl,swell), HeLa clones stably expressing either a kinase-dead dominant negative variant of the Ca(2+)-dependent PKC isoform alpha (PKC alpha K386R) or of the atypical PKC isoform zeta (PKCzeta K275W) were generated. G(Cl,swell) was significantly reduced in HeLa cells expressing the dominant negative PKC alpha mutant but remained unaltered in cells expressing dominant negative PKCzeta. These findings strongly implicate PKC alpha as a critical regulatory element that is required for efficient regulatory volume decrease in HeLa cells.