A pertussis toxin substrate regulates alpha 1-adrenergic dependent phosphatidylinositol hydrolysis in cultured rat myocytes.

The chronotropic response of the heart to alpha 1-adrenergic catecholamines influenced by pertussis toxin under certain conditions. In view of the fact that alpha 1-adrenergic action is mediated by the phosphatidylinositol pathway of hormone action in many cells, we examined the hypothesis that alpha-adrenergic agonists stimulate phosphatidylinositol hydrolysis in cardiomyocytes and that this effect is sensitive to pertussis toxin. Addition of norepinephrine to cultured rat ventricular myocytes prelabeled with myo-[2-3H]inositol resulted in rapid and significant accumulation of inositol phosphate (IP1) and inositol biphosphate. Norepinephrine-stimulated IP1 formation was not inhibited by propranolol, but was inhibited by alpha-adrenergic antagonists with an order of potency indicating alpha 1-adrenergic receptor subselectivity: prazosin (alpha 1; 3 nM) greater than yohimbine (alpha 2; 10 microM). The effect of norepinephrine to enhance IP1 formation was markedly attenuated in cells pretreated with pertussis toxin. Pertussis toxin also induced the transfer of ADP-ribose from NAD to a 41,000-dalton membrane protein in these cells. The concentration of pertussis toxin resulting in maximal inhibition of norepinephrine-stimulated IP1 formation correlated well with the concentration of pertussis toxin necessary to completely ADP-ribosylate a 41,000-dalton membrane protein (1 ng/ml). The range over which pertussis toxin inhibited norepinephrine-dependent IP1 formation and ADP-ribosylated the 41,000-dalton substrate was virtually identical. These observations establish a role for a 41,000-dalton pertussis toxin substrate in coupling the alpha 1-adrenergic receptor to phosphoinositol hydrolysis in myocardial cells.