Article
- The EMBO Journal (2006) 25, 5071 - 5082
- doi:10.1038/sj.emboj.7601378
Published online: 12 October 2006
Subject Categories:
Pannexin-1 mediates large pore formation and interleukin-1
release by the ATP-gated P2X7 receptor
Pablo Pelegrin and Annmarie Surprenant
- Department of Biomedical Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Correspondence to:
Annmarie Surprenant, Department of Biomedical Science, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S10 2TN, UK. Tel.: +44 114 222 2366; Fax: +44 114 222 2360; E-mail: a.surprenant@shef.ac.uk
Received 24 July 2006; Accepted 8 September 2006
Abstract
P2X7 receptors are ATP-gated cation channels; their activation in macrophage also leads to rapid opening of a membrane pore permeable to dyes such as ethidium, and to release of the pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-1
(IL-1). It has not been known what this dye-uptake path is, or whether it is involved in downstream signalling to IL-1 release. Here, we identify pannexin-1, a recently described mammalian protein that functions as a hemichannel when ectopically expressed, as this dye-uptake pathway and show that signalling through pannexin-1 is required for processing of caspase-1 and release of mature IL-1 induced by P2X7 receptor activation.
Keywords:
- hemichannel,
- inflammasome,
- ion channel,
- pro-inflammatory cytokines,
- purine receptors
