Angiotensin II-induced phosphatidylcholine hydrolysis in cultured vascular smooth-muscle cells. Regulation and localization.

In cultured vascular smooth-muscle cells (VSMC), angiotensin II (AngII) induces a biphasic, sustained increase in diacylglycerol (DG) of unclear origin. To determine whether hydrolysis of phosphatidylcholine (PC) is a possible source of DG, we labelled cellular PC with [3H]choline, and measured the formation of intra- and extra-cellular [3H]choline and [3H]phosphocholine after stimulation with AngII. AngII induced a concentration-dependent release of choline from VSMC that was significant at 2 min and was sustained over 20 min. In contrast, accumulation of choline inside the cells was very slight. AngII also increased the formation of [3H]myristate-labelled phosphatidic acid, and, in the presence of ethanol, of [3H]phosphatidylethanol, characteristic of a phospholipase D (PLD) activity. Extracellular release of choline was partially inhibited by removal of extracellular Ca2+ (54 +/- 9% inhibition at 10 min) or inhibition of receptor processing by phenylarsine oxide (79 +/- 8% inhibition at 20 min). The protein kinase C activator phorbol myristate acetate also stimulated a large release of choline after a 5 min lag, which was unaffected by the Ca2+ ionophore ionomycin, but was additive with AngII stimulation. Down-regulation of protein kinase C by a 24 h incubation with phorbol dibutyrate (200 nM) decreased basal choline release, but had no effect on AngII stimulation. We conclude that AngII induces a major PC hydrolysis, probably mainly via PLD activation. This reaction is partially dependent on Ca2+ and is independent of protein kinase C, and appears to be mediated by cellular processing of the receptor-agonist complex. Our results are consistent with a preferential hydrolysis of PC from the external leaflet of the plasmalemma, and raise the possibility that PC hydrolysis occurs in specialized 'signalling domains' in VSMC.