Side-dependent effects of internal versus external Na and K on ouabain binding to reconstituted human red blood cell ghosts

The side-dependent effects of internal and external Na and K on the ouabain binding rate, as promoted by inside MgATP, has been evaluated utilizing reconstituted human red blood cell ghosts. Such ghost systems provide the situation where Na]i, K]i, Na]o, and K]o can each be varied under conditions in which the others are either absent or fixed at constant concentrations. It was found that, in the presence of Ko, increasing either Na]i or K]i resulted in decreasing the rate at which ouabain was bound. Changes in Na]i or K]i in the absence of Ko were without effect on the ouabain binding rate. Thus, the ouabain binding rate was found to vary inversely with the rate of Na:K and K:K exchange but was independent of the rate of Na:Na exchange. The effect of Ko in antagonizing ouabain binding, as well as the influence of Nao on this interaction, were found to require the presence of either Nai or Ki. The results are interpreted in terms of a model relating the availability of the ouabain binding site to different conformational states of the pump complex. Differences were observed in the ouabain binding properties of red cell ghosts compared to microsomal preparations but it is not known whether the basis for the differences resides in the different preparations studied or in the lack of control of sidedness in the microsomal systems.