Inhibition of platelet-activating-factor-induced human platelet activation by prostaglandin D2. Differential sensitivity of platelet transduction processes and functional responses to inhibition by cyclic AMP.

It has been proposed that cyclic AMP inhibits platelet reactivity: by preventing agonist-induced phosphoinositide hydrolysis and the resultant formation of 1,2-diacylglycerol and elevation of cytosolic free Ca2+ concentration [( Ca2+]i); by promoting Ca2+ sequestration and/or extrusion; and by suppressing reactions stimulated by (1,2-diacylglycerol-dependent) protein kinase C and/or Ca2+-calmodulin-dependent protein kinase. We used the adenylate cyclase stimulant prostaglandin D2 to compare the sensitivity to cyclic AMP of the transduction processes (phosphoinositide hydrolysis and elevation of [Ca2+]i) and functional responses (shape change, aggregation and ATP secretion) that are initiated after agonist-receptor combination on human platelets. Prostaglandin D2 elicited a concentration-dependent elevation of platelet cyclic AMP content and inhibited platelet-activating-factor(PAF)-induced ATP secretion [I50 (concn. causing 50% inhibition) approximately 2 nM], aggregation (I50 approximately 3 nM), shape change (I50 approximately 30 nM), elevation of [Ca2+]i (I50 approximately 30 nM) and phosphoinositide hydrolysis (I50 approximately 10 nM). A 2-fold increase in cyclic AMP content resulted in abolition of PAF-induced aggregation and ATP secretion, whereas maximal inhibition of shape change, phosphoinositide hydrolysis and elevation of [Ca2+]i required a greater than 10-fold elevation of the cyclic AMP content. This differential sensitivity of the various responses to inhibition by cyclic AMP suggests that the mechanisms underlying PAF-induced aggregation and ATP secretion differ from those underlying shape change. Thus a major component of the cyclic AMP-dependent inhibition of PAF-induced platelet aggregation and ATP secretion is mediated by suppression of certain components of the activation process that occur distal to the formation of DAG or elevation of [Ca2+]i.