Adriamycin inhibits PTH-mediated but not PGE2-mediated stimulation of cyclic AMP formation in isolated bone cells.

We have examined the effect of adriamycin, an anthracycline antibiotic which modifies plasma membrane functions, on the cyclic AMP response to PTH and PGE2 in isolated osteoblastlike cells. Adriamycin blunted the increment in bone cell cyclic AMP caused by exposure to PTH. This effect appeared rapidly (within 3 min after bone cells were exposed to adriamycin) and disappeared soon after exposure of adriamycin-treated cells to adriamycin-free incubation medium. Inhibition was evident over the entire time course of PTH action, at low as well as high PTH concentrations, and was one-half maximal at 31 microM adriamycin. It could not be attributed to alterations in cyclic AMP exodus, degradation or interference with the cyclic AMP assay, nor to impaired cell viability. Adriamycin also reduced the stimulatory effect of PTH on adenylate cyclase activity in a crude plasma membrane preparation. By contrast, adriamycin failed to modify the effects of PGE2 on cyclic AMP generation in intact bone cells, and on adenylate cyclase activity in broken cells. Moreover, concentrations of adriamycin that blunted the effect of PTH on adenylate cyclase activity did not inhibit the stimulatory effects of sodium fluoride or of GppNHp. These results suggest that adriamycin selectively alters the interaction between PTH and its receptor or impairs the transmission of information from hormone-receptor complex to adenylate cyclase (or both), perhaps by binding to specific lipid domains in the plasma membrane. Structural analogues of adriamycin, which vary in their lipophilic properties, also varied in their capacity to perturb the cyclic AMP response.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)