The regulation of actin polymerization in differentiating U937 cells correlates with increased membrane levels of the pertussis-toxin-sensitive G-protein Gi2.

Undifferentiated U937 cells appear to lack a capacity of increase cellular F-actin. However, electropermeabilized cells gain the ability to respond in this way to a guanine nucleotide analogue, guanosine 5'-[gamma-thio]trisphosphate (GTP[S]) after 1 h of treatment with dibutyryl cyclic AMP (db-cAMP). The results reported here show that the levels of membrane association of the G-protein Gi2 alpha increase with a time course identical with that of the GTP[S]-sensitivity of electropermeabilized cells. These results suggest that Gi2 alpha may be involved in the signal-transduction pathway leading to actin polymerization in db-cAMP-differentiated U937 cells.