p21ras-induced responsiveness of phosphatidylinositol turnover to bradykinin is a receptor number effect.

Proteins encoded by ras genes have recently been reported to couple certain growth factor receptors to phospholipase C, the enzyme catalyzing phosphatidylinositol breakdown. To investigate this hypothesis, the normal and the transforming Ha-, Ki-, and N-ras genes were each transfected into Rat-1 fibroblasts under the control of strong promoters. Several cell lines, both normal and transformed, were selected that expressed high levels of p21ras. Phosphatidylinositol turnover was measured in these cells in response to a wide variety of peptide factors; bradykinin was found to have a greatly enhanced effect on the p21ras overexpressors relative to the parental and control cells. Bradykinin receptor numbers were measured in these lines and found to be up to 40-fold higher in the p21ras overexpressors than in the parental cells. This was found to be the case for both normal and transforming forms of all three varieties of ras genes. Receptor number correlated well with the bradykinin-dependent phosphatidylinositol turnover response in all cases. These data indicate that the effects of p21ras on cellular responses to the peptide hormone bradykinin are due to changes in receptor number rather than to direct coupling by p21ras between the receptor and phospholipase C.