A novel method to differentiate between ping-pong and simultaneous exchange kinetics and its application to the anion exchanger of the HL60 cell

We have developed a new test to differentiate between ping-pong and simultaneous mechanisms for tightly coupled anion exchange. This test requires the use of a dead-end reversible noncompetitive inhibitor. As an example, we have applied the test to the anion exchanger of the HL60 cell using the salicylic acid derivative 3,5-diiodosalicylic acid (DIS), which reversibly inhibits HL60 cell Cl/Cl exchange. The concentration of DIS that causes 50% inhibition (ID₅₀) increased only slightly as either intra- or extracellular chloride was increased, indicating that DIS inhibits HL60 anion exchange in a noncompetitive manner. In agreement with this observation, plots of the slope of the Dixon plot as a function of 1/[Cl_o] or 1/[Cl_i] were fit with straight lines with nonzero intercepts, indicating that DIS does not compete with either of the substrates ([Cl_o] and [Cl_i). The secondary Dixon slope test is based on the fact that, for a dead-end inhibitor such as DIS, the slope of the Dixon plot slope vs. 1/[Cl_i] (secondary Dixon slope or SDS) is independent of extracellular Cl when the exchange mechanism follows ping-pong kinetics. Similarly, the SDS calculated from a plot as a function of 1/[Cl_o] is also independent of intracellular Cl for a ping-pong exchanger. In contrast to this prediction, we found that for DIS inhibition of Cl/Cl exchange in HL60 cells the slope of the Dixon plot slope vs. 1/[Cl_i] decreased by a factor of 2.5-fold when [Cl_o] was increased from 1 to 11 mM (P < 0.0001). This change in the SDS rules out ping-pong kinetics, but is consistent with a simultaneous model of Cl/Cl exchange in which there are extra-and intracellular anion binding sites, both of which must be occupied by suitable anions in order to allow simultaneous exchange of the ions.