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Survival of Helicobacter pylori in acid depends on intrabacterial urease. This urease is a Ni2+-containing oligomeric heterodimer. Regulation of its activity and assembly is important for gastric habitation by this neutralophile. The gene complex encodes catalytic subunits ( ureA/B), an acid-gated urea channel ( ureI), and accessory assembly proteins ( ureE–H). With the use of yeast two-hybrid analysis for determining protein-protein interactions, UreF as bait identified four interacting sequences encoding UreH, whereas UreG as bait detected five UreE sequences. These results were confirmed by coimmunoprecipitation and β-galactosidase assays. Native PAGE immunoblotting of H. pylori inner membranes showed interaction of UreA/B with UreI, whereas UreI deletion mutants lacked this protein interaction. Deletion of ureE–H did not affect this interaction with UreI. Hence, the accessory proteins UreE/G and UreF/H form dimeric complexes and UreA/B form a membrane complex with UreI, perhaps enabling assembly of the urease apoenzyme at the membrane surface and immediate urea access to intrabacterial urease to allow rapid periplasmic neutralization.

Enterochromaffin-like (ECL) cells play a pivotal role in the peripheral regulation of gastric acid secretion as they respond to the functionally important gastrointestinal hormones gastrin and somatostatin and neural mediators such as pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating peptide and galanin. Gastrin is the key stimulus of histamine release from ECL cells in vivo and in vitro. Voltage-gated K+and Ca2+channels have been detected on isolated ECL cells. Exocytosis of histamine following gastrin stimulation and Ca2+entry across the plasma membrane is catalyzed by synaptobrevin and synaptosomal-associated protein of 25 kDa, both characterized as a soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor protein. Histamine release occurs from different cellular pools: preexisting vacuolar histamine immediately released by Ca2+entry or newly synthesized histamine following induction of histidine decarboxylase (HDC) by gastrin stimulation. Histamine is synthesized by cytoplasmic HDC and accumulated in secretory vesicles by proton-histamine countertransport via the vesicular monoamine transporter subtype 2 (VMAT-2). The promoter region of HDC contains Ca2+-, cAMP-, and protein kinase C-responsive elements. The gene promoter for VMAT-2, however, lacks TATA boxes but contains regulatory elements for the hormones glucagon and somatostatin. Histamine secretion from ECL cells is thereby under a complex regulation of hormonal signals and can be targeted at several steps during the process of exocytosis.

The gastric enterochromaffin-like (ECL) cell se cretes histamine in response to secretagogues (gastrin, acetylcholine) by calcium signaling-dependent exocytosis of intracellular vacuoles containing the hormone. ECL cells were isolated from rat fundic gastric mucosa by elutriation and density-gradient centrifugation. Currents across the plasma membrane were measured using whole cell patch-clamp methods. These cells had a low conductance of 0.5 nS and resting potential of -50 mV Depolarization activated a K+ current that was blocked by Ba2+. Steady-state current in absence of K+ was due to Cl- because of the magnitude of the reversal potential and the effects of Cl- removal. Stimulation of secretion by gastrin, cholecystokinin octapeptide (CCK-8), and the phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate activated the Cl- conductance with a time course similar to that of histamine release. Therefore the ECL cell maintains a high resting potential, largely due to K+ currents, and stimulation of secretion activates a Cl- current, perhaps deriving from the membrane of the secretory granule that fuses with the plasma membrane. The depolarization that ensues may activate the K+ current to maintain the membrane potential during exocytosis. exocytosis; acid secretion Submitted on July 31, 1995 Accepted on October 2, 1995

Enzymatically isolated rat gastric mucosal cells (0.25% G-cells) were separated by counterflow elutriation, yielding a fraction in which the G-cell content was relatively enriched to 1.4%. In this fraction, basal gastrin release (mean +/- SE) was 31.1 +/- 1.3 pg.10(6) cells-1.60 min-1 and was stimulated by 10(-8) M neuromedin C (222.3 +/- 18.1% of basal), 10(-4) M carbachol (227.5 +/- 25.9%), 10(-6) M 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) (196.3 +/- 14.7%), and 10(-3) M dibutyryl adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (DBcAMP) (193.9 +/- 6.8%), respectively. The neuropeptide galanin was tested at 10(-10) to 10(-7) M. Galanin had no effect on basal gastrin release but reduced the responses to neuromedin C, carbachol, TPA, and DBcAMP. IC50 ranged between 1 X 10(-10) and 8.6 X 10(-10) M galanin. Although in the relatively enriched G-cell fraction D-cells were not detectable by immunocytochemistry, a low rate of somatostatin release was still measured by radio-immunoassay (5.3 +/- 0.5 pg.10(6) cells-1.60 min-1). However, galanin failed to increase this rate under basal conditions or in response to any of the stimulants tested. These results favor the assumption that galanin might exert a direct inhibitory effect on rat gastric G-cells. Galanin seems to interfere at an intracellular mechanism(s), which is induced by neuromedin C and carbachol and which is commonly activated by protein kinase C- and cAMP-mediated stimulation.