ZnR/GPR39 mediated human salivary secretion

Abstract

Zn2+ is divalent cation that is essential for many biological events by affecting various ion channels. Zn2+ can serve G‐protein coupled receptor signaling via activation of metabotropic zinc receptors, ZnR/GPR39. In spite of several evidences of the existence of ZnR/GPR39 in salivary gland cells, there has been no evidence of ZnR/GPR39‐mediated modulation of the salivary gland functions. Here we have characterized the role of ZnR/GPR39 in human submandibular gland cells. Mouth wash with Zn‐containing solution evoked the secretion of unstimulated and stimulated whole saliva in human. We found that ZnR/GPR39 is expressed in the human submandibular glands and HSG cells. Zn2+ increased cytosolic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) in a concentration‐dependent manner. Both muscarinic antagonist and histaminergic antagonists did not have any effect on Zn2+‐induced increase [Ca2+]i, which is completely blocked by the inhibitor of phospholipase C‐beta. Like as muscarinic and histaminergic stimulation, Zn2+ induced the translocation of aquaporin‐5 (AQP5) into the plasma membrane. These data suggest that metabotropic zinc receptors can modulate salivary secretion in human submandibular gland cells independently from the muscarinic receptor signaling.Support or Funding InformationThis work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (2017R1A2B4002176 to H.K.P.; 2018R1A5A2024418 to S.Y.C.).This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.