Enzymatic synthesis of 1-alkyl-2-acetyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, a hypotensive and platelet-aggregating lipid.

1-Alkyl-2-acetyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, derived chemically from choline plasmalogens of beef heart, has been shown to possess powerful antihypertensive activity (Blank, M. L., Synder, F., Byers, L. W., Brooks, B., and Muirhead, E. E. (1979) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 90, 1194-1200) and to be an extremely potent platelet-activating factor (Demopoulos, C. C., Pinckard, R. N., and Hanahan, D. J. (1979) J. Biol. Chem. 254, 9355-9358). In the present study, microsomal preparations of rat spleen were shown to synthesize 1-hexadecyl-2-acetyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine by an acetyl-CoA:1-alkyl-2-lyso-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine acetyltransferase reaction; the acetyltransferase appears to be different from the acyltransferase responsible for the transfer of palmitate to glycerolipids. The apparent Km for acetyl-CoA was 67 microM; the optimal concentration of 1-alkyl-2-lyso-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine was 30 microM. Higher concentrations of the lyso substrate were inhibitory. When acetyl-CoA (100 microM) and 1-hexadecyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (30 microM) were incubated wih spleen microsomes under optimal conditions, the specific activity was approximately 10 nmol of 1-alkyl-2-acetyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine/min/mg of protein. Although the reaction was inhibited by the addition of EDTA or EGTA to the incubation mixture, the acetyltransferase did not appear to require a divalent cation. An acyl analog, 1-palmitoyl-2-lyso-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, also served as a substrate for the acetyltransferase; however, the unnatural isomer, 3-alkyl-2-lyso-sn-glycero-1-phosphocholine, did not. The acetyltransferase activity was found in a variety of tissues, but the spleen had the highest activity of the tissues examined; lung, lymph nodes, and thymus also had high activities. Identification of the product and the possible physiological importance of the pathway are discussed.