We explored the involvement of protein kinase C (PKC) and its isoforms in the regulation of BNaC2. Reverse transcriptase PCR evaluation of PKC isoform expression at the level of mRNA revealed the presence of ā£ and ā/ā in all glioma cell lines analyzed; most, but not all cell lines expressed ā¦ and . No messages were found for the ā¤I and ā¤II isotypes of PKC in the tumor cells. Normal astrocytes expressed ā¤ but not ā„. The essential features of these results were confirmed at the protein level by Western analysis. This disproportionate pattern of PKC isoform expression in glioma cell lines was further echoed in the functional effects of these PKC isoforms on BNaC2 activity in bilayers. PKC holoenzyme or the combination of PKCā¤I and PKCā¤II isoforms inhibited BNaC2. Neither PKCā nor PKC or their combination had any effect on BNaC2 activity in bilayers. The inhibitory effect of the PKCā¤I and PKCā¤II mixture on BNaC2 activity was abolished by a 5-fold excess of a PKCā and PKC combination. PKC holoenzymes, PKCā¤I, PKCā¤II, PKCā¦, PKCā, and PKC phosphorylated BNaC2 in vitro. In patch clamp experiments, the combination of PKCā¤I and PKCā¤II inhibited the basally activated inward Na Ų conductance. The variable expression of the PKC isotypes and their functional antagonism in regulating BNaC2 activity support the idea that the participation of multiple PKC isotypes contributes to the overall activity of BNaC2.The recent molecular identification of a class of proton-sensitive ion channels (ASIC; acid-sensitive ion channel (1, 2); also called BNC and BNaC; brain Na Ļ© channel (3, 4)) belonging to the degenerin (DEG)/ENaC superfamily of ion channels (5) added a new molecular entity to the already complicated field of nociception. Even though their participation in nociception is controversial, ASICs might underlie some properties of native proton-induced currents (6 -8) and could contribute to the function of nociceptive transduction with many other key constituents including nociceptor-specific voltage-gated Na Ļ© channels, ATP-gated channels, and capsaicin receptors (9 -13).The distinguishing feature of this family of ion channels, namely, proton-induced conductance, is exhibited by ASIC1a (14), BNaC2 (4), ASIC1b (15), ASICā¤ (16), ASIC2 (or BNC1) (3), BNaC1 (4), MDEG (17), and ASIC3 (DRASIC; 18), hASIC3 (19,20), and hTNaC1 (21). However, ASIC4 is functionally inactive (22, 23) and may require an association with an accessory protein(s) and/or other subunit(s) of the family, like the splice variant form of ASIC2 (ASIC2b, also called MDEG2) (24) or ASICā¤2, a splice variant of ASICā¤ (25). The multiplicity of current responses to extracellular acid loads in different neurons is consistent with the existence of functionally distinct ASICs in these cells.The tissue distribution of the ASIC members is not limited to the nervous system but also includes many other tissues such as the lung, testis, and intestine (20,21,26,27). Sensory neuron-specific expression of DRASIC has been reported (18), but Chen et al. (16) have found low level trans...