Increased TMEM16A-encoded calcium-activated chloride channel activity is associated with pulmonary hypertension

Pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) are more depolarized and display higher Ca2+ levels in pulmonary hypertension (PH). Whether the functional properties and expression of Ca2+-activated Cl− channels (ClCa), an important excitatory mechanism in PASMCs, are altered in PH is unknown. The potential role of ClCa channels in PH was investigated using the monocrotaline (MCT)-induced PH model in the rat. Three weeks postinjection with a single dose of MCT (50 mg/kg ip), the animals developed right ventricular hypertrophy (heart weight measurements) and changes in pulmonary arterial flow (pulse-waved Doppler imaging) that were consistent with increased pulmonary arterial pressure and PH. Whole cell patch experiments revealed an increase in niflumic acid (NFA)-sensitive Ca2+-activated Cl− current [ I Cl(Ca)] density in PASMCs from large conduit and small intralobar pulmonary arteries of MCT-treated rats vs. aged-matched saline-injected controls. Quantitative RT-PCR and Western blot analysis revealed that the alterations in I Cl(Ca) were accompanied by parallel changes in the expression of TMEM16A, a gene recently shown to encode for ClCa channels. The contraction to serotonin of conduit and intralobar pulmonary arteries from MCT-treated rats exhibited greater sensitivity to nifedipine (1 μM), an l-type Ca2+ channel blocker, and NFA (30 or 100 μM, with or without 10 μM indomethacin to inhibit cyclooxygenases) or T16AInh-A01 (10 μM), TMEM16A/ClCa channel inhibitors, than that of control animals. In conclusion, augmented ClCa/TMEM16A channel activity is a major contributor to the changes in electromechanical coupling of PA in this model of PH. TMEM16A-encoded channels may therefore represent a novel therapeutic target in this disease.