Identification of beta-adrenergic binding sites in rabbit myometrium

Rabbit uterine muscle may contract or relax with adrenergic stimulation depending on the hormonal milieu. This difference in contractile activity has been shown to be due to alteration of adrenergic response between alpha-adrenergic (contraction) and beta-adrenergic (relaxation). When rabbits are treated with estrogen followed by progesterone, norepinephrine produces myometrial relaxation. This effect is blocked by propranolol, indicating that it is mediated by beta receptor activation. A subcellular preparation of this myometrium has adenylate cyclase activity that can be stimulated by isoproterenol + guanyl-5'-yl-imidodi-phosphate (Gpp(NH)p). The radioligand [125I]iodohydroxybenzylpindolol binds to the same preparation. The binding is rapid, 80% maximal in 10 min, and readily reversible (t1/2 = 5 min). The binding is high affinity (Kd = 0.12 nM), low capacity (15 fmol/mg protein), and is to a single class of binding sites. Binding is competed for stereoselectively by beta adrenergic agonists and antagonists. The competition of beta adrenergic agonists for binding, isoproterenol = ritodrine greater than epinephrine greater than norepinephrine, is consistent with interactions at a beta2-adrenergic receptor.

Subunit interaction in cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase of mutant lymphoma cells

We have previously selected and characterized mutant S49 mouse lymphoma cells that possess an adenosine 3':5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase (ATP:protein phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.1.37) with an increased apparent affinity constant (Ka) for activation by cAMP. The Ka lesion in one such mutant clone has been shown to result from a structural mutation involving the kinase holoenzyme's regulatory (R) subunit. The present report examines the interaction of R and catalytic (C) subunits of the kinases in extracts of the mutant cells and the normal "wild type" (WT) parental line. Subunit recombination experiments were performed, by using purified WT and mutant R subunits, and C subunits purified from WT cells. As compared to WT R subunits, only 1/6 as much mutant R subunit was required to reassociate with and suppress 50% of C subunit activity, at equilibrium. NaSCN activates cAMP-dependent kinase of both cell types by causing the holoenzyme to dissociate. In comparison with WT, a 2-fold higher concentration of NaSCN is required to maximally activate the kinase in mutant extracts. Both the reassociation result and the increased resistance of the mutant enzyme to a nonspecific dissociating agent strongly suggest that the mutant R subunit binds C subunit more tightly than does the WT R subunit. This interpretation raises the possibility that increased R-C subunit binding affinity in the mutant cell is responsible for the increased Ka for activation by cAMP of the mutant holoenzyme, and thus for the decreased potency of cAMP in regulating intact mutant cells.

Agonist-specific refractoriness induced by isoproterenol. Studies with mutant cells

The beta-adrenergic catecholamine isoproterenol produces a large, rapid, but often a transient, elevation in cellular content of cyclic AMP. We have used the S49 mouse lymphoma cell line, in which genetic variants with specific defects in the pathway of cyclic AMP generation and function have been isolated, to study the increase and subsequent decrease in cyclic AMP levels (termed refractoriness) following incubation of cells with isoproterenol. In wild type S49 cells, isoproterenol produces a peak response in the cellular content of cyclic AMP within 30 min, but the cyclic AMP level falls rapidly thereafter, approaching basal levels by 6 h. Neither inactivation of the drug nor secretion of a nonspecific inhibitor of adenylate cyclase appears to account for the refractoriness. Because isoproterenol refractory cells can still be stimulated by cholera toxin, refractoriness to isoproterenol does not represent a generalized decrease in cellular cyclic AMP response. Particulate preparations from refractory cells have a selective loss of isoproterenol-responsive adenylate cyclase activity, but their activation constants and stereoselectivity for (-)- and (+)-isoproterenol are unaltered. In addition, refractory cells have decreased specific binding of the beta-adrenergic antagonist [125I]iodohydroxybenzylpindolol. This decrease appears to represent a reduction in the number, but not the affinity, of beta-adrenergic receptor sites. Similar studies in an S49 clone that lacks the enzyme cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase yield essentially identical findings. Because kinase-deficient cells do not induce the cyclic AMP-degrading enzyme phosphodiesterase after the cellular content of cyclic AMP is increased, induced of phosphodiesterase cannot account for refractoriness to isoproterenol. Cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase does not appear to be required for either the decrease in beta-adrenergic receptors and isoproterenol-responsive adenylate cyclase, nor does it appear to be required for the development of refractoriness to isoproterenol. In contrast, an S49 clone lacking hormone-responsive adenylate cyclase activity but retaining beta-adrenergic receptors does not appear to lose receptors after being incubated with isoproterenol, either alone or together with dibutyryl cyclic AMP. Therefore, in this clone, receptor occupancy alone or in combination with elevated cyclic AMP levels is insufficient to cause refractoriness. Refractoriness thus appears to require intact adenylate cyclase. This suggests that adenylate cyclase may exert regulatory controls on beta-adrenergic receptors in addition to generation of cyclic AMP.

A structural gene mutation affecting the regulatory subunit of cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase in mouse lymphoma cells

Compared to the wild-type parental line of S49 mouse lymphoma cells, intact cells of a mutant line (kin.A) are 10-fold less sensititive to biologic effects of exogenous cyclic adenosine 3':5'-monophophosphate (cAMP), such as induction of cAMP phosphodiesterase, cell cycle-specific growth inhibition, and cytolysis. The cAMP-dependent protein kinase (ATP:protein phosphotransferase; EC 2.7.1.37) activity of kin.A cells exhibits an apparent Ka for activation by cAMP 10-fold greater than that of wild type, and is much more resistant to inactivation by heat. These differences between the wild-type and mutant enzymes persist through a high degree of purification, suggesting a structural alteration in the kin.A holoenzyme. Heterologous reconstitution experiments, using separated R and C subunits of the wild-type and kin.A cAMP-dependent kinases, show that the altered cAMP affinity and thermolability are conferred by the R component of the kin.A enzyme. These results are most consistent with a structural mutation in the kin.A gene coding for the R subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase. Evidence for a structural mutation helps to define one mechanism of heritable variation in cultured somatic cells. The phenotype produced by the kin.A structural mutation also greatly strengthens the conslusion that cAMP-dependent protein kinase is essential for cAMP regulation of growth and enzyme induction in intact S49 cells.

Cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase: pivotal role in regulation of enzyme induction and growth

Dibutyryl cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cyclic AMP) produces phosphodiesterase induction, growth arrest, and cytolysis in S49 lymphoma cells. The striking parallelism between protein kinase activity that is dependent on cytosol cyclic AMP and cellular responses to dibutyryl cyclic AMP in wild-type cells and three classes of clones resistant to cyclic AMP indicates that protein kinase mediates cyclic AMP regulation of growth and enzyme induction in S49 cells.

A model of the kinetics of insulin in man

The design of the present study of the kinetics of insulin in man combines experimental features which obviate two of the major problems in previous insulin studies. (a) The use of radioiodinated insulin as a tracer has been shown to be inappropriate since its metabolism differs markedly from that of the native hormone. Therefore porcine insulin was administered by procedures which raised insulin levels in arterial plasma into the upper physiologic range. Hypoglycemia was prevented by adjusting the rate of an intravenous infusion of glucose in order to control the blood glucose concentration (the glucose-clamp technique). (b) Estimation of a single biological half-time of insulin after pulse injection of the hormone has been shown to be inappropriate since plasma insulin disappearance curves are multiexponential. Therefore the SAAM 25 computer program was used in order to define the parameters of a three compartment insulin model. The combined insulin mass of the three compartments (expressed as plasma equivalent volume) is equal to inulin space (15.7% body wt). Compartment 1 is apparently the plasma space (4.5%). The other two compartments are extra-vascular; compartment 2 is small (1.7%) and equilibrates rapidly with plasma, and compartment 3 is large (9.5%) and equilibrates slowly with plasma. The SAAM 25 program can simulate the buildup and decay of insulin in compartments 2 and 3 which cannot be assayed directly. Insulin in compartment 3 was found to correlate remarkably with the time-course of the servo-controlled glucose infusion. Under conditions of a steady-state arterial glucose level, glucose infusion is a measure of glucose utilization. We conclude that compartment 3 insulin (rather than plasma insulin) is a more direct determinant of glucose utilization. We suggest that the combined use of glucose-clamp and kinetic-modeling techniques should aid in the delineation of pathophysiologic states affecting glucose and insulin metabolism.