Phorbol ester, 1,2-diacylglycerol, and collagen induce inhibition of arachidonic acid incorporation into phospholipids in human platelets.

We have shown that phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) enhanced A-23187-induced arachidonate release and thromboxane synthesis in human platelets (Mobley, A., and Tai, H. H. (1985) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 130, 717-723). The mechanism of enhancement by PMA was not elucidated. In the present study, we have shown that PMA-treated platelets exhibited significantly less [1-14C]arachidonate incorporation than did control platelets. However, no significant change in uptake of labeled linoleate or oleate was observed by PMA treatment. Examination of the two enzyme activities involved in arachidonate incorporation into phospholipids indicated that both arachidonoyl-coenzyme A (CoA) synthase and arachidonoyl-CoA lysophosphatide acyltransferase were inactivated following treatment with PMA or 1-oleoyl-2-acetyl glycerol. When platelets were stimulated with A-23187 plus PMA which produced a significant synergism in thromboxane synthesis, both enzyme activities were substantially less than those in platelets treated with A-23187 alone. In addition to PMA and 1-oleoyl-2-acetyl glycerol induced decreases in both enzyme activities, collagen, a platelet agonist which can activate protein kinase C (Ca2+/phospholipid-dependent enzyme), was also found to cause a concentration-dependent attenuation of both enzyme activities. These results suggest that protein kinase C activation induced by PMA or collagen may cause inactivation of both arachidonoyl-CoA synthase and arachidonoyl-CoA lysophosphatide acyltransferase resulting in inhibition of the reincorporation of arachidonate released by A-23187 and, consequently, greater availability of arachidonate for thromboxane synthesis.