Guanine nucleotide regulation of phospholipase C activity in permeabilized rabbit neutrophils. Inhibition by pertussis toxin and sensitization to submicromolar calcium concentrations.

Rabbit neutrophils labelled with [3H]inositol and permeabilized with saponin produced [3H]inositol trisphosphate (InsP3) when incubated with stable analogues of GTP or millimolar concentrations of Ca2+. [3H]InsP3 production elicited by guanosine 5'-[gamma-thio]triphosphate was enhanced by the chemoattractant formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine and inhibited by pertussis-toxin pretreatment. A pertussis-toxin-sensitive stimulation of [3H]InsP3 concentration was also observed with guanosine 5'-[beta gamma-imido]triphosphate, but not with guanosine 5'-[beta-thio]diphosphate or GTP. Millimolar Ca2+ alone was sufficient to stimulate [3H]InsP3 production; however, in the presence of guanosine 5'-[gamma-thio]triphosphate, the Ca2+ dose-response curve was shifted to submicromolar concentrations. These findings directly confirm the role of a pertussis-toxin-sensitive guanine nucleotide regulatory protein (G protein) in chemoattractant-stimulated phospholipase C activity in rabbit neutrophils. Moreover, the ability of guanine nucleotides to sensitize phospholipase C to physiologically relevant Ca2+ concentrations suggests that the role of the activated G protein may be to enhance the apparent affinity of phospholipase C for Ca2+ and thus to activate the enzyme without an increase in the Ca2+ concentration.