The inhibitory guanine nucleotide regulatory protein modulates agonist-stimulated cAMP production in rat osteosarcoma cells.

We identified the subunits of the stimulatory and inhibitory guanine nucleotide binding proteins (Gs and Gi, respectively) associated with adenylate cyclase in rat osteosarcoma (ROS) cells. Pertussis toxin catalyzed ADP-ribosylation of Gi alpha in ROS cells increased agonist (PTH and isoproterenol)-stimulated, but not basal, cAMP production. The effect of pertussis toxin was dose and time dependent, and slowly reversible (T 1/2 approximately 30 h) during continued culture without toxin. Pertussis toxin treatment of ROS cell lines (17/2.8 and 24/l) with markedly different agonist responsiveness increased agonist-stimulated cAMP production in proportion to the response without toxin treatment. Pertussis toxin treatment further increased cAMP response to PTH in dexamethasone treated cells. We conclude that ROS cells contain functional Gi which modulates agonist-stimulated cAMP formation. Alterations in ROS cAMP responsiveness caused by steroids, and the reduced responsiveness of the 24/1 cell line, however, are unlikely to be due to changes in Gi.