Piezo1 is a mechanosensitive ion channel required for various biological processes, but its regulation remains poorly understood. Here, we used erythrocytes to address this question since they display Piezo1 clusters, a strong and dynamic cytoskeleton and three types of submicrometric lipid domains, respectively enriched in cholesterol, GM1 ganglioside/cholesterol and sphingomyelin/cholesterol. We revealed that Piezo1 clusters were present in both the rim and the dimple erythrocyte regions. Upon Piezo1 chemical activation by Yoda1, the Piezo1 cluster proportion mainly increased in the dimple area. This increase was accompanied by Ca2+ influx and a rise in echinocytes, in GM1/cholesterol-enriched domains in the dimple and in cholesterol-enriched domains in the rim. Conversely, the effects of Piezo1 activation were abrogated upon membrane cholesterol depletion. Furthermore, upon Piezo1-independent Ca2+ influx, the above changes were not observed. In healthy donors with a high echinocyte proportion, Ca2+ influx, lipid domains and Piezo1 fluorescence were high even at resting state, whereas the cytoskeleton membrane occupancy was lower. Accordingly, upon decreases in cytoskeleton membrane occupancy and stiffness in erythrocytes from patients with hereditary spherocytosis, Piezo1 fluorescence was increased. Altogether, we showed that Piezo1 was differentially controlled by lipid domains and the cytoskeleton and was favored by the stomatocyte-discocyte-echinocyte transformation.
Keywords: GM1 ganglioside; Piezo1 chemical activation; Piezo1 distribution; Yoda1; cholesterol; erythrocyte morphology; membrane stiffness; spectrin cytoskeleton.