Evidence for the role of epinephrine binding frequency in activation of adenylate cyclase.

The binding of epinephrine to beta-adrenergic receptors is a rapid-on, rapid-off process, such that at any level of receptor occupancy (defined as the fraction of time a receptor is bound or, alternatively, the probability that any particular receptor is bound at any given instant) the entire population of available receptors has periods of occupancy that occur at high frequency. While in the bound state, the receptor acts as a mobile catalyst for the activation of adenylate cyclase. Two processes, then, could conceivably contribute to the access of epinephrine-bound receptors to cyclase and the extent of cyclase activation for a given concentration of epinephrine: 1) the rapid switching of epinephrine among receptors ensures that discontinuous distributed regions of the cell surface experience agonist activity and 2) the mobility of the receptors (and GTP-binding protein) in the cell membrane makes it possible for one receptor to activate numerous GTP-binding protein-adenylate cyclase complexes. In principle, either effect can lead to a wide separation between the binding and response curves (EC50 much less than Kd). It has so far been assumed that mobility is able to account completely for the separation. The extent of the contribution of the process of agonist binding and unbinding to adenylate cyclase activation has not been demonstrated or quantified. Here we examine the distinction between binding frequency and receptor mobility contributions to adenylate cyclase activation in epinephrine-stimulated S49 lymphoma cells for which there is a 200-fold separation between the EC50 and Kd at 37 degrees (EC50 = 10 nM, Kd = 2 microM). Experiments were designed to measure adenylate cyclase activation rates for a constant concentration of epinephrine-bound receptors but with variation of the absolute number of receptors involved in the activation. This was accomplished by blocking a portion of the receptor population with an antagonist (propranolol) that has a long occupancy half-life, while increasing the occupancy of the remaining receptors by compensating increases in epinephrine. With this protocol, a condition is approached in which receptor mobility alone is responsible for activation. This resulted in a 50% decrease in adenylate cyclase activity, compared with a control of 30 nM epinephrine. Thus, for epinephrine concentrations near the EC50, the switching of epinephrine among the receptor population is necessary for greater than 50% of the observed activity; it can be shown in conjunction that receptor mobility nonetheless accounts for the majority of the separation between the EC50 and the Kd.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)