The Cardiac Ryanodine Receptor Provides a Suitable Pathway for the Rapid Transport of Zinc (Zn2+)

The sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) in cardiac muscle is suggested to act as a dynamic storage for Zn2+ release and reuptake, albeit it is primarily implicated in the Ca2+ signaling required for the cardiac cycle. A large Ca2+ release from the SR is mediated by the cardiac ryanodine receptor (RYR2), and while this has a prominent conductance for Ca2+ in vivo, it also conducts other divalent cations in vitro. Since Zn2+ and permeant Mg2+ have similar physical properties, we tested if the RYR2 channel also conducts Zn2+. Using the method of planar lipid membranes, we evidenced that the RYR2 channel is permeable to Zn2+ with a considerable conductance of 81.1 +/- 2.4 pS, which was significantly lower than the values for Ca2+ (127.5 +/- 1.8 pS) and Mg2+ (95.3 +/- 1.4 pS), obtained under the same asymmetric conditions. Despite similar physical properties, the intrinsic Zn2+ permeability (P-Ca/P-Zn = 2.65 +/- 0.19) was found to be ~2.3-fold lower than that of Mg2+ (P-Ca/P-Mg = 1.146 +/- 0.071). Further, we assessed whether the channel itself could be a direct target of the Zn2+ current, having the Zn2+ finger extended into the cytosolic vestibular portion of the permeation pathway. We attempted to displace Zn2+ from the RYR2 Zn2+ finger to induce its structural defects, which are associated with RYR2 dysfunction. Zn2+ chelators were added to the channel cytosolic side or strongly competing cadmium cations (Cd2+) were allowed to permeate the RYR2 channel. Only the Cd2+ current was able to cause the decay of channel activity, presumably as a result of Zn2+ to Cd2+ replacement. Our findings suggest that the RYR2 channel can provide a suitable pathway for rapid Zn2+ escape from the cardiac SR; thus, the channel may play a role in local and/or global Zn2+ signaling in cardiomyocytes.