IMR Press / FBE / Volume 2 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.2741/E134

Frontiers in Bioscience-Elite (FBE) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 2 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article

Immunolocalization of mitoKATP subunits in human osteoblast-like cells

Show Less
1 Department of Orthodontics, King’s College London, United Kingdom
2 Centre for Ultrastructural Imaging, King’s College London, United Kingdom

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Front. Biosci. (Elite Ed) 2010, 2(2), 739–751; https://doi.org/10.2741/E134
Published: 1 January 2010
Abstract

The mitochondrial ATP-dependent K channel (mitoKATP) has been shown to play a role in cellular protection against apoptosis, or programmed cell death. This channel has been identified and characterized in a number of cell and tissue types but to date the possible existence of mitoKATP in osteoblastic cells has not been investigated. The aim of this investigation was to establish whether the mitochondria of human osteosarcoma-derived osteoblasts (SaOS-2 cells) contain the putative mitoKATP subunits Kir6.1 and Kir6.2. Ultrathin sections of SaOS-2 cells were prepared for transmission electron microscopy using an adaptation of the Tokuyasu method, and immunolabelled using goat anti-Kir6.1 or anti-Kir6.2 antisera as the primary label, and a 10nm colloidal gold-conjugated donkey anti-goat secondary antibody. The suitability of the antisera and the immunostaining protocol were confirmed by using a sample of rat cardiac muscle as a positive control. Ultrastructural analysis revealed that SaOS-2 cells contain Kir6.2 but not Kir6.1, and that Kir6.2 is present in the mitochondria, but in extremely low abundance. These findings suggest that human osteoblast-like cells might contain mitoKATP channels in which Kir6.2 is the pore-forming subunit, although it appears that these channels are likely to be present in extremely low abundance.

Keywords
Bone cell biology
Electron Microscopy
Osteoblast
Saos-2
Mitokatp
Apoptosis
Kir6.1
Kir6.2
Immunogold
Share
Back to top