Second messengers and phosphoproteins最新文献

Activation of G-proteins by internal perfusion with GTP-gamma-S or external application of carbachol resulted in oscillations of cytoplasmic Ca2+ in isolated mouse pancreatic beta-cells. The Ca2+ transients were associated with the generation of K+ currents sufficiently pronounced to induce marked pulses of hyperpolarization. The oscillatory G-protein response remained largely unaffected when altering the membrane potential. The oscillations became less frequent in the presence of 1 mM neomycin and disappeared when the cells were internally perfused with 100 micrograms/ml heparin. The frequency of the oscillations was positively correlated with the basal level of cytoplasmic Ca2+. Addition of Ca2+ to the internal perfusion medium increased the oscillatory rate and buffering of the ion with Indo-1 or EGTA had the opposite effect. It is concluded that G-protein activation results in cyclic mobilisation of intracellular calcium mediated by inositol-1,4,5-triphosphate and that the basal concentration of cytoplasmic Ca2+ is an important determinant for the frequency of the oscillations.

Protein kinase C (PKC) is thought to play an important role in neuronal function by mediating changes in synaptic strength. Specifically, it has been argued that persistent PKC activation underlies the maintenance of long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic transmission in the hippocampus, a model widely used to study mammalian learning and memory. Because the induction of LTP is known to be dependent upon Ca2+ influx into the postsynaptic neuron, we investigated Ca(2+)-dependent mechanisms that operate to elicit persistent PKC activation in the hippocampus. Hippocampal homogenates were incubated with Ca2+ for a brief period and subsequently assayed for persistent changes in basal (Ca(2+)-independent) PKC activity, using the selective PKC substrate neurogranin(28-43) (NG(28-43)). After Ca2+ incubation, basal PKC phosphorylation of NG(28-43) was increased and expression of the increased activity could be inhibited by PKC(19-36), a selective peptide inhibitor of PKC. These data indicate the presence of a persistently activated form of PKC in Ca(2+)-pretreated hippocampal homogenates. The persistently activated PKC was localized to the soluble fraction of homogenates. Generation of the soluble, persistently activated form of PKC was blocked by the calpain inhibitor, leupeptin, suggesting a proteolytic activation of PKC. Column chromatography and Western blots indicated the presence of PKM, a proteolytic fragment of PKC that is active in the absence of calcium, diacylglycerols, or phospholipid cofactors. Thus, Ca2+ induces proteolytic activation of PKC in hippocampal homogenates. This suggests that proteolytic activation is a plausible candidate as a mechanism underlying the persistent activation of PKC associated with LTP.

The effect of platelet pretreatment with moderate amounts of 1,2-dioctanoylglycerol on subsequent thrombin-induced activation and its correlation with the degree of protein phosphorylation is studied. Protein kinase C preactivation (treatment with 1 microM dioctanoylglycerol for 20 min) significantly reduces thrombin-promoted platelet aggregation, cytosolic calcium-rise, ATP-secretion and, albeit to a lesser extent, protein phosphorylation. Exposure of platelets to dioctanoylglycerol brings about a transient phosphorylation of a 47 kDa protein and a slight but more persistent phosphorylation of proteins of approximate molecular mass 26 and 68 kDa. It is hypothesized that the latter phosphoproteins are responsible for the inhibition of the thrombin-promoted platelet activation. Agonist-evoked aggregation is more affected by a long (20 min) rather than a short (1 min) pretreatment with dioctanoylglycerol, showing no correlation with the phosphorylation of the major substrates of protein kinase C.

Several lines of evidence indicate that phosphorylation of the 25 kDa mRNA cap binding protein (eIF-4E) stimulates the efficiency of translational initiation. While the protein kinases which catalyze this reaction in intact cells have not been completely identified, evidence suggests that protein kinase C phosphorylates serine residues of eIF-4E in intact cells. In this study we demonstrate that protein kinase C also phosphorylates threonine residues of recombinant human eIF-4E in vitro. Phosphorylation of threonine and serine was observed over a range of eIF-4E and salt concentrations. However, relatively low levels of phosphorylation were seen even under optimal conditions. Similar results were observed with native eIF-4E purified from human erythrocytes. These findings demonstrate that protein kinase C can phosphorylate both serine and threonine residues of eIF-4E in vitro, but suggest that protein kinase C may not be the primary enzyme that phosphorylates eIF-4E in vivo.

We have shown that growth of S49 WT mouse lymphoma cells for 24 hr in 3 nM epinephrine produced very significant desensitization of subsequent cellular cAMP responses to challenges with higher concentrations of epinephrine. The effects of this long-term treatment (LTT) were obvious in intact cells and also when adenylate cyclase activity was measured in semi-purified membranes. Beta 2-adrenergic receptors (beta 2AR) were decreased by LTT, and the desensitization of adenylate cyclase was due at least in part to this down-regulation. When mouse L cells transfected with WT beta 2AR from hamster lung (L-WT beta 2AR cells) were subjected to LTT, the attenuation of adenylate cyclase in membranes was obvious, but the consequences of LTT on intact L-WT beta 2AR cells were highly equivocal. That is, when the effects of epinephrine on cellular cAMP levels were measured in LTT or control L-WT beta 2AR cells little desensitization was apparent. Further, cellular cAMP excursions in response to even very high concentrations of epinephrine were very small in control L-WT beta 2AR cells as compared to control S49 WT cells. Subsequent experiments have shown that L-WT beta 2AR cells possess a phosphodiesterase (PDE) which demonstrates marked positive cooperativity with cAMP with a Hill coefficient of 2. The EC50 for cAMP hydrolysis was approximately 30 nM in cell free preparations. cGMP was a positive allosteric effector of the L-WT beta 2AR cell PDE. Further, when cellular cAMP levels in intact L-WT beta 2AR cells were raised above a threshold by treatment with 0.5 microM forskolin and 2 mM IBMX with the epinephrine challenge, the effect of LLT became obvious in the intact cell system. These data demonstrate that cAMP responses to hormones are greatly decreased in systems where the predominant PDE demonstrates positive cooperativity for cAMP.

The correlation between phospholamban and sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-transporting ATPase levels and the magnitude of phospholamban-mediated stimulation of sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ transport was examined in microsomes prepared from rabbit and canine cardiac, slow twitch and fast twitch skeletal muscle. Phospholamban was absent from microsomes prepared from fast twitch skeletal muscle but present at comparable levels in microsomes prepared from cardiac and slow twitch skeletal muscle. Levels of Ca(2+)-transporting ATPase were higher in microsomes prepared from slow twitch skeletal muscle than in microsomes prepared from cardiac muscle, however, and ratios of phospholamban to Ca(2+)-transporting ATPase were several fold greater in microsomes prepared from cardiac muscle than in microsomes prepared from slow twitch skeletal muscle. Stimulation of ATP-dependent Ca2+ transport following phosphorylation of phospholamban by cAMP-dependent protein kinase or incubation with anti-phospholamban monoclonal antibody was observed only in cardiac muscle microsomes. These observations indicate that phospholamban, while present in both cardiac and slow twitch skeletal muscle, may be involved in the hormonal regulation of sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ transport only in the former, and that the lack of phospholamban-mediated stimulation of Ca2+ transport in slow twitch skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum may result from the lower ratio of phospholamban to Ca(2+)-transporting ATPase in this tissue.

Rat parathyroid hormone (PTH) stimulates cAMP-dependent protein kinase and protein kinase C activity in the kidney. However, PTH increases intracellular Calcium in primary cultures of proximal tubular cells. We have investigated the possibility that PTH also stimulates Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaM kinase II). We have employed the tandem chromatographic column method, using synthetic peptide as a substrate, to measure the renal CaM kinase II activity. PTH (250 nM) stimulated CaM kinase II activity by about 50% after 15 sec., and activity returned to baseline by 2 min. Calmodulin antagonists significantly impaired the stimulatory action of PTH whereas basal levels of CaM kinase II activity were relatively unaffected. This study demonstrates that PTH does activate CaM kinase II in renal tissue, and suggests another pathway for the actions of PTH in the kidney.

In two separate experiments, control and PGF2 alpha-treated unilaterally ovariectomized ewes received vehicle or adenosine every four hours through an exteriorized catheter installed either to parafuse the ovarian vascular pedicle of the remaining ovary containing a corpus luteum (CL) or to infuse intrauterine ipsilateral to the remaining ovary with the CL. Infusions were given every four hours from day 7 through day 22 postestrus or until ewes returned to estrus. Chronic infusion of vehicle intrauterine or parafusion of the ovarian vascular pedicle with vehicle in PGF2 alpha-treated ewes shortened the interestrous interval compared to controls (P less than 0.05). However, chronic parafusion of the ovarian vascular pedicle with adenosine in PGF2 alpha-treated ewes prevented a PGF2 alpha-induced premature luteolysis (P less than 0.05) but not when adenosine was infused chronically intrauterine (P greater than 0.05). It is concluded that adenosine can block a PGF2 alpha-induced premature luteolysis in vivo and may have roles in regulation of luteal secretion of progesterone but it is probably not the embryonic antiluteolysin of early pregnancy in ewes.

Mitotic spindles isolated from prometaphase-arrested mammalian cells contain associated protein kinases that are extracted by high salt treatment. Their fractionation by ion-exchange chromatography reveals three major peaks of protein kinase activity that phosphorylate brain microtubule-associated proteins and differ in their substrate specificity. One of them has been identified as a casein kinaseII-like enzyme. A mitotic spindle-associated 325 kDa protein related to brain MAP1B is a major substrate for this casein kinase II-like enzyme. Another mitotic spindle protein kinase has been tentatively identified as a proline-directed protein kinase.

Bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) produces rapid changes in macrophage protein synthesis and function. Phosphorylation of the 25 kDa mRNA cap-binding protein (eIF-4E) in model systems regulates the efficiency of protein synthesis. We report that both LPS and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) stimulate phosphorylation of eIF-4E and the p220 component of eIF-4F in bone marrow-derived macrophages. Moreover, anti-TNF-alpha antibodies inhibit LPS-stimulated phosphorylation of eIF-4E and p220 by 43% (+/- 6%) and 50% (+/- 5%), respectively. Our results indicate that LPS stimulates eIF-4F phosphorylation by a TNF-alpha-dependent mechanism, and suggest that phosphorylation of eIF-4F might play a role in the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in macrophages exposed to LPS.