Gastrointestinal Hormone Cholecystokinin Increases P-Glycoprotein Membrane Localization and Transport Activity in Caco-2 Cells

It was reported that stimulation of taste receptor type 2 member 38 by a bitter substance, phenylthiocarbamide (PTC), increased P-glycoprotein (P-gp) mRNA level and transport activity via release of the gastrointestinal hormone cholecystokinin-8 (CCK-8) at 9 h. Therefore, we hypothesized that CCK-8 and PTC might also regulate P-gp activity more rapidly via a different mechanism. As a result, we found that the pretreatment of human colon adenocarcinoma (Caco-2) cells with 10-mM PTC significantly decreased the intracellular accumulation of P-gp substrate rhodamine 123 (Rho123) compared with the control after 90-min incubation. Moreover, CCK-8 treatments significantly reduced the accumulation of Rho123 within 30 min, compared with the control. On the other hand, when Caco-2 cells were pretreated with PTC, the efflux ratio of Rho123 was significantly increased compared with control. The efflux ratio of Rho123 in CCK-8 treatment cells was also significantly increased compared with control. Furthermore, CCK-8 increased the phosphorylation of the scaffold proteins ezrin, radixin, and moesin, which regulate translocation of P-gp to the plasma membrane. Therefore, our results indicate that PTC induced release of CCK-8, which in turn induced the phosphorylation of ezrin, radixin, and moesin proteins, leading to upregulation of P-gp transport activity via increased membrane localization of P-gp.