ATP11C Facilitates Phospholipid Translocation across the Plasma Membrane of All Leukocytes

PLoS One. 2016 Jan 22;11(1):e0146774. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0146774. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Organization of the plasma membrane into specialized substructures in different blood lineages facilitates important biological functions including proper localization of receptors at the plasma membrane as well as the initiation of crucial intracellular signaling cascades. The eukaryotic plasma membrane is a lipid bilayer that consists of asymmetrically distributed phospholipids. This asymmetry is actively maintained by membrane-embedded lipid transporters, but there is only limited data available about the molecular identity of the predominantly active transporters and their substrate specificity in different leukocyte subsets. We demonstrate here that the P4-type ATPase ATP11C mediates significant flippase activity in all murine leukocyte subsets. Loss of ATP11C resulted in a defective internalization of phosphatidylserine (PS) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) in comparison to control cells. The diminished flippase activity caused increased PS exposure on 7-aminoactinomycin D- (7-AAD-) viable pro-B cells freshly isolated from the bone marrow of ATP11C-deficient mice, which was corrected upon a 2-hour resting period in vitro. Despite the impaired flippase activity in all immune cell subsets, the only other blood cell type with an accumulation of PS on the surface were viable 7-AAD- developing T cells but this did not result in any discernable effect on their development in the thymus. These findings show that all leukocyte lineages exhibit flippase activity, and identify ATP11C as an aminophospholipid translocase in immune cells.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adenosine Triphosphatases / genetics*
  • Adenosine Triphosphatases / metabolism
  • Animals
  • B-Lymphocytes / metabolism*
  • Biological Transport, Active / physiology*
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Dactinomycin / analogs & derivatives
  • Dactinomycin / metabolism
  • Leukocytes / metabolism
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Phosphatidylethanolamines / metabolism*
  • Phosphatidylserines / metabolism*
  • Phospholipid Transfer Proteins / metabolism*
  • T-Lymphocytes / metabolism*

Substances

  • Phosphatidylethanolamines
  • Phosphatidylserines
  • Phospholipid Transfer Proteins
  • Dactinomycin
  • phosphatidylethanolamine
  • 7-aminoactinomycin D
  • ATP11C protein, mouse
  • Adenosine Triphosphatases

Grants and funding

This work was supported by National Health and Medical Research Council Grant GNT1061288. MY was supported by a postgraduate award from the Ministry of National Education, Republic of Turkey, and AE was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Career Development Fellowship GNT1035858 and by the Ramaciotti Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.