Protein kinase C has a crucial role in signal transduction for a variety of biologically active substances which activate cellular functions and proliferation. When cells are stimulated, protein kinase C is transiently activated by diacylglycerol which is produced in the membrane during the signal-induced turnover of inositol phospholipids. Tumour-promoting phorbol esters, when intercalated into the cell membrane, may substitute for diacylglycerol and permanently activate protein kinase C. The enzyme probably serves as a receptor for the tumour promoters. Further exploration of the roles of this enzyme may provide clues for understanding the mechanism of cell growth and differentiation.

The role of protein kinase C in cell surface signal transduction and tumour promotion

There has recently been rapid progress in understanding receptors that generate intracellular signals from inositol lipids. One of these lipids, phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate, is hydrolysed to diacylglycerol and inositol trisphosphate as part of a signal transduction mechanism for controlling a variety of cellular processes including secretion, metabolism, phototransduction and cell proliferation. Diacylglycerol operates within the plane of the membrane to activate protein kinase C, whereas inositol trisphosphate is released into the cytoplasm to function as a second messenger for mobilizing intracellular calcium.

Inositol trisphosphate, a novel second messenger in cellular signal transduction.

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Inositol trisphosphate and diacylglycerol as second messengers.

A model for receptor-regulated calcium entry

Activation of receptors for a wide variety of hormones and neurotransmitters leads to an increase in the intracellular level of calcium. Much of this calcium is released from intracellular stores but the link between surface receptors and this internal calcium reservoir is unknown. Hydrolysis of the phosphoinositides, which is another characteristic feature of these receptors, has been implicated in calcium mobilization. The primary lipid substrates for the receptor mechanism seem to be two polyphosphoinositides, phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate (PtdIns4P) and phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns4,5P2), which are rapidly hydrolysed following receptor activation in various cells and tissues. The action of phospholipase C on these polyphosphoinositides results in the rapid formation of the water-soluble products inositol 1,4-bisphosphate (Ins1,4P2) and inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (Ins1,4,5P3). In the insect salivary gland, where changes in Ins1,4P2 and Ins1,4,5P2 have been studied at early time periods, increases in these inositol phosphates are sufficiently rapid to suggest that they might mobilize internal calcium. We report here that micromolar concentrations of Ins1,4,5P3 release Ca2+ from a nonmitochondrial intracellular Ca2+ store in pancreatic acinar cells. Our results strongly suggest that this is the same Ca2+ store that is released by acetylcholine.

Release of Ca2+ from a nonmitochondrial intracellular store in pancreatic acinar cells by inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate.

1. Paired iris smooth muscles from rabbits were incubated for 30 min at 37 degrees C in an iso-osmotic salt medium containg glucose, inositol, cytidine and [32P]phosphate. 2. One of the pair was then incubated at 37 degrees C for 10 min in unlabelled medium containing 10mM-2-deoxyglucose and the other was incubated in the presence of acetylcholine plus eserine (0.05mM each). 2-Deoxyglucose, which was included in the incubation medium to minimize the biosynthesis of triphosphoinositide from ATP and diphosphoinositide, decreased the amount of labelled ATP by 71% and inhibited further 32P incorporation from ATP into triphosphoinositide by almost 30%. 3. Acetylcholine (0.05mM) increased significantly the loss of 32P from triphosphoinositide (the 'triphosphoinositide effect') in 32P-labelled iris muscle. This effect was measured both chemically and radiochemically. It was also observed when 32Pi was replaced by myo-[3H]inositol in the incubation medium. 4. The triphosphoinositide effect was blocked by atropine but not by D-tubocurarine. Further, muscarinic but not nicotinic agonists were found to provoke this effect. 5. Acetylcholine decreased by 28% the 32P incorporation into triphosphoinositide, presumably by stimulating its breakdown. This decrement in triphosphoinositide was blocked by atropine, but not by D-tubocurarine. 6. The triphosphoinositide effect was accompanied by a significant increase in 32P labelling, but not tissue concentration, of phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidic acid. The possible relationship between the loss of 32P label from triphosphoinositide in response to acetylcholine and the concomitant increase in that of phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidic acid is discussed. 7. The presence of triphosphoinositide phosphomonoesterase, the enzyme that might be stimulated in the iris smooth muscle by the neurotransmitter, was demonstrated, and, under our methods of homogenization and assay, more than 80% of its activity was localized in the particulate fraction.

A A Abdel-Latif

Papers

Acetylcholine increases the breakdown of triphosphoinositide of rabbit iris muscle prelabelled with [32P] phosphate