The chloride conductance of conditionally immortalized mesangial cells isolated from the H-2Kb-tsA58 transgenic mouse was studied in cells grown in permissive and non-permissive culture conditions. No differences were found in the magnitude of the chloride conductance in 140 mM tetramethyl ammonium chloride between cells grown in permissive and non-permissive culture conditions (1.08 +/- 0.05 nS and 1.02 +/- 0.05 nS). Selectivity sequences were defined as 1.8I- > 1.2Br- > lCl- and 1.3I- > 1.1Br- > lCl- respectively and both the anion channel inhibitors niflumic acid and ochratoxin A inhibited the chloride conductance in a dose-dependent manner. The chloride conductance was made up from calcium-dependent and calcium-independent components and in the presence of 1 microM free calcium in the pipette this could be increased by the presence of 100 U ml-1 insulin added to the incubation medium. This appeared to increase the sensitivity of the conductance to levels of intracellular calcium as no differences were observed in the presence of either 1 mM or 100 nM pipette calcium. These data indicate that there is a significant chloride conductance in mesangial cells from the H-2Kb-tsA58 transgenic mouse and minimal changes are observed with changes from permissive to non-permissive culture conditions.
