Monitoring magnesium efflux cyclic AMP-induced in HL60 cells by using a new hydroxyquinoline fluorescent chemosensor

Cellular homeostasis of magnesium is still unclear. Several studies documented the occurrence of fluxes of magnesium across the plasmamembrane within minutes from the application of metabolic or hormonal stimuli. These fluxes, however, result in limited variation of free Mg2+ intracellular concentration and large changes in total Mg content. It has been reported that a stimulation with cyclic AMP caused a movement of total magnesium within 10 min after treatment in cardiomyocytes. In this study we tested this hypothesis in HL60 leukemic cells, not excitable but highly proliferating cell model. We evaluated Mg flux by DCHQ5, the phenyl-derivative of hydroxyquinoline fluorescent probe family. We observed a drastic decrease of intracellular total magnesium in the first 3 min. We also verified that at least 10% of the total intracellular amount of magnesium moved in the supernatant of stimulated cells.