Cytochalasin B enhancement of the diacylglycerol response in formyl peptide-stimulated neutrophils.

Diacylglycerol has gained wide acceptance as an important second messenger in the signal transduction mechanism by which occupancy of certain membrane receptors such as the formyl peptide receptor of neutrophils leads to biological responses, but supporting evidence for this proposed role is limited. We have utilized a recently developed diacylglycerol kinase assay (Preiss, J. E., Loomis, C. R., Bishop, W. R., Stein, R., Niedel, J. E., and Bell, R. M. (1986) J. Biol. Chem. 261, 8597-8600) to characterize the diacylglycerol response of normal human neutrophils stimulated with N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLP) and other formyl peptides. fMLP alone stimulated a slow, prolonged 36% rise in diacylglycerol levels above basal levels. Cytochalasin B enhances several fMLP-stimulated neutrophil responses, including aggregation, superoxide production, and degranulation. Pretreatment of neutrophils with cytochalasin B markedly increased the rate and extent of the diacylglycerol response to fMLP stimulation. Diacylglycerol peaked at 5 min at 206 +/- 21% above basal levels with a t1/2 of 45 s. The diacylglycerol response was time- and fMLP and cytochalasin B concentration-dependent, appropriate for the known biological activities of several peptide analogues, and completely inhibited by pretreatment with pertussis toxin. These data demonstrate that diacylglycerol may function as a second messenger for neutrophil activation and suggest that cytochalasin B enhancement of neutrophil biology may be the result of an enhanced diacylglycerol response.