Redox status changes exert critical impacts on necrotic/apoptotic and normal cellular processes. We report here a widely expressed Ca2+-permeable cation channel, LTRPC2, activated by micromolar levels of H2O2 and agents that produce reactive oxygen/nitrogen species. This sensitivity of LTRPC2 to redox state modifiers was attributable to an agonistic binding of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (beta-NAD+) to the MutT motif. Arachidonic acid and Ca2+ were important positive regulators for LTRPC2. Heterologous LTRPC2 expression conferred susceptibility to death on HEK cells. Antisense oligonucleotide experiments revealed physiological involvement of "native" LTRPC2 in H2O2- and TNFalpha-induced Ca2+ influx and cell death. Thus, LTRPC2 represents an important intrinsic mechanism that mediates Ca2+ and Na+ overload in response to disturbance of redox state in cell death.

A major hallmark of apoptosis is normotonic shrinkage of cells. Here, we studied the relation between apoptotic cell shrinkage and apoptotic cell death. Induction of the apoptotic volume decrease (AVD) under normotonic conditions was found to be coupled to facilitation of the regulatory volume decrease (RVD), which is known to be attained by parallel operation of Cl ؊ and K ؉ channels, under hypotonic conditions. Both the AVD induction and the RVD facilitation were found to precede cytochrome c release, caspase-3 activation, DNA laddering, and ultrastructural alterations in three cell types after apoptotic insults with two distinct apoptosis inducers. Also, the AVD was not prevented by a broad-spectrum caspase inhibitor. When the AVD induction and the RVD facilitation were prevented by blocking volume-regulatory Cl ؊ or K ؉ channels, these cells did not show succeeding apoptotic biochemical and morphological events and were rescued from death. Thus, it is concluded that the AVD, which is caused by disordered cell volume regulation, is an early prerequisite to apoptotic events leading to cell death.

A fundamental property of animal cells is the ability to regulate their own cell volume. Even under hypotonic stress imposed by either decreased extracellular or increased intracellular osmolarity, the cells can re‐adjust their volume after transient osmotic swelling by a mechanism known as regulatory volume decrease (RVD). In most cell types, RVD is accomplished mainly by KCl efflux induced by parallel activation of K+ and Cl− channels. We have studied the molecular mechanism of RVD in a human epithelial cell line (Intestine 407). Osmotic swelling results in a significant increase in the cytosolic Ca2+ concentration and thereby activates intermediate‐conductance Ca2+‐dependent K+ (IK) channels. Osmotic swelling also induces ATP release from the cells to the extracellular compartment. Released ATP stimulates purinergic ATP (P2Y2) receptors, thereby inducing phospholipase C‐mediated Ca2+ mobilization. Thus, RVD is facilitated by stimulation of P2Y2 receptors due to augmentation of IK channels. In contrast, stimulation of another G protein‐coupled Ca2+‐sensing receptor (CaR) enhances the activity of volume‐sensitive outwardly rectifying Cl− channels, thereby facilitating RVD. Therefore, it is possible that Ca2+ efflux stimulated by swelling‐induced and P2Y2 receptor‐mediated intracellular Ca2+ mobilization activates the CaR, thereby secondarily upregulating the volume‐regulatory Cl− conductance. On the other hand, the initial process towards apoptotic cell death is coupled to normotonic cell shrinkage, called apoptotic volume decrease (AVD). Stimulation of death receptors, such as TNFα receptor and Fas, induces AVD and thereafter biochemical apoptotic events in human lymphoid (U937), human epithelial (HeLa), mouse neuroblastoma × rat glioma hybrid (NG108‐15) and rat phaeochromocytoma (PC12) cells. In those cells exhibiting AVD, facilitation of RVD is always observed. Both AVD induction and RVD facilitation as well as succeeding apoptotic events can be abolished by prior treatment with a blocker of volume‐regulatory K+ or Cl− channels, suggesting that AVD is caused by normotonic activation of ion channels that are normally involved in RVD under hypotonic conditions. Therefore, it is likely that G protein‐coupled receptors involved in RVD regulation and death receptors triggering AVD may share common downstream signals which should give us key clues to the detailed mechanisms of volume regulation and survival of animal cells. In this Topical Review, we look at the physiological ionic mechanisms of cell volume regulation and cell death‐associated volume changes from the facet of receptor‐mediated cellular processes.