Differential sensitivity of arachidonic acid release and 1,2-diacylglycerol formation to pertussis toxin, GDP beta S and NaF in saponin-permeabilized human platelets: possible evidence for distinct GTP-binding proteins involving phospholipase C and A2 activation.

Human platelets labeled with [3H]arachidonic acid and permeabilized with saponin produced [3H]1,2-diacylglycerol (DG) by phospholipase C and released [3H]arachidonate by phospholipase A2, when activated with thrombin. Thrombin-induced arachidonate liberation was almost completely inhibited with pretreatment of pertussis toxin (10 micrograms/ml), whereas DG formation was decreased by only 20-40% in the toxin-treated platelets. Although guanosine 5'-o-(2-thiodiphosphate) (GDP beta S) suppressed arachidonate release and DG production in a dose-dependent manner, the half maximal inhibition required less than 10 microM for arachidonate release but more than 100 microM for DG production. Moreover, the dose-response effects of NaF on arachidonate release and DG formation were different. These results indicate that arachidonate release and DG formation are differently affected by these agents acting on guanine nucleotide binding proteins (G-proteins), suggesting that the distinct G proteins modulate the activity of phospholipase C and phospholipase A2.