Studies on the increase in cytosolic free calcium induced by epidermal growth factor, serum, and nucleotides in individual A431 cells

Extracellular ATP is a mitogen for 3T3, 3T6, and A431 cells and acts synergistically with other growth factors

Extracellular ATP in concentrations of 5-50 microM displayed very little mitogenic activity by itself but it caused synergistic stimulation of [3H]thymidine incorporation in the presence of phorbol 12-tetradecanoate 13-acetate, epidermal growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, insulin, adenosine, or 5'-(N-ethyl)carboxamidoadenosine. Cultures of Swiss 3T3, Swiss 3T6, A431, DDT1-MF2, and HFF cells were used. The percent of cell nuclei labeled with [3H]thymidine and cell number were also increased. ADP was equally mitogenic, while UTP and ITP were much less active. The effect of ATP was not due to hydrolysis by ectoenzymes to form adenosine, a known growth factor. Thus, the nonhydrolyzable analogue adenosine 5'-[beta, gamma-imido]triphosphate was mitogenic. In addition, it was found that ATP showed synergism in 3T6 and 3T3 cells when present for only the first hour of an incorporation assay, during which time no significant hydrolysis occurred. Furthermore, prolonged preincubation of cells with ATP reduced the mitogenic response to ATP but not to adenosine; preincubation with adenosine or N6-(R-phenylisopropyl)adenosine had the reverse effect. Finally, the effect of adenosine, but not of ATP, was inhibited by aminophylline. We conclude that extracellular ATP is a mitogen that interacts with P2 purinoceptors on the plasma membrane.

ATP-induced calcium mobilization in human neutrophils

Extracellular ATP at 10 microM increased the concentration of cytoplasmic free Ca2+ ( [Ca2+]i) 3-fold in human neutrophils. The [Ca2+]i was measured by fura-2 fluorescence. The effect was rapid but transient: [Ca2+]i reached a maximum within 10 s and then returned to its resting value after 2-3 min. The rise in [Ca2+]i elicited by ATP was unaffected by the removal of extracellular Ca2+, indicating that the primary source of Ca2+ is from intracellular stores. In contrast to ATP, neither ADP nor AMP, at concentrations as high as 100 microM, caused any detectable changes in [Ca2+]i. Among other nucleotide triphosphates tested, UTP was as effective as ATP in causing a transient rise in [Ca2+]i, and prevented a subsequent response to ATP. Similarly, ATP prevented a subsequent response to UTP but the second response could be obtained when the initially added ATP was removed by the addition of hexokinase. Phorbol myristate acetate, the activator of Ca2+, phospholipid-dependent protein kinase, completely inhibited the ATP-induced increases in [Ca2+]i without affecting the basal [Ca2+]i level. The results suggest that extracellular ATP stimulates human neutrophils by causing the release of calcium from intracellular storage pools by mechanisms which can be inhibited by phorbol myristate acetate.

Extracellular ATP induces the release of calcium from intracellular stores without the activation of protein kinase C in Swiss 3T6 mouse fibroblasts

Exposure of Swiss 3T6 mouse fibroblasts to extracellular ATP stimulated the formation of inositol phosphates and mobilized intracellular calcium. The mobilization of intracellular calcium was verified by imaging of fura-2 fluorescence in individual cells and by monitoring the efflux of 45Ca2+ from preloaded cells. However, we found no activation of protein kinase C as measured by phosphorylation of an 80-kDa acidic protein and by transmodulation of the receptor for epidermal growth factor. A careful examination of the kinetics of the phosphorylation reaction (from 30 sec to 10 min) revealed no activation of protein kinase C by extracellular ATP at any time. The lack of activation of protein kinase C was demonstrated even when a concentration of ATP 10-fold higher than that required to give a strong Ca2+ signal was used. Extracellular ATP did not inhibit protein kinase C activation by fetal bovine serum, platelet-derived growth factor, or phorbol esters. The effects of ATP were also produced by UTP but not by ADP, AMP, or adenosine. These findings demonstrate that it is possible to induce the mobilization of intracellular calcium by an inositol phosphate-mediated pathway without the activation of protein kinase C.

Epidermal growth factor activates calcium-permeable channels in A 431 cells

The patch clamp technique in a cell-attached configuration was used to search for calcium-permeable channels in human carcinoma A 431 cells. Unitary inward currents were recorded with 100 mM CaCl2 in a pipette, with the mean slope conductance of 2.8 pS and a reversal potential (obtained by extrapolation) of +25.5 mV. Application of epidermal growth factor (EGF) into the extracellular solution produced a transient increase in the probability of these channels being open. The effect develops with delay of about 20 s and lasts thereafter for 36 s (mean values). We propose that these channels mediate an EGF-induced increase in the concentration of cytosolic free calcium.

Epidermal growth factor stimulates tyrosine phosphorylation of phospholipase C-II independently of receptor internalization and extracellular calcium

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) rapidly stimulates the formation of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate in a variety of cell types. Previously we have found that in intact cells stimulation of phospholipase C (PLC) activity by EGF is correlated with the retention of increased amounts of PLC activity by a phosphotyrosine immunoaffinity matrix, suggesting that the EGF-receptor tyrosine kinase phosphorylates PLC. We now define parameters of the mechanism by which EGF addition to A-431 cells stimulates phosphotyrosine immunoisolation of PLC activity and demonstrate that EGF addition to A-431 cells increases tyrosine phosphorylation of PLC. EGF rapidly and reversibly stimulated the anti-phosphotyrosine recovery of increased PLC activity when cells were treated with growth factor at 3 degrees C, indicating that receptor internalization is not required and that the phosphorylation event occurs prior to formation of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate. Also, the EGF stimulation of anti-phosphotyrosine recovery of PLC activity occurred in the absence of extracellular Ca2+. Stimulation of PLC activity in intact cells by other agonists, such as bradykinin or ATP, did not result in increased anti-phosphotyrosine recovery of PLC activity, suggesting two separate mechanisms exist in A-431 cells for hormone-stimulated formation of inositol phosphates. Finally, using monoclonal antibodies that specifically recognize three distinct PLC isozymes, we show that an approximately 145-kDa PLC isozyme (PLC-II) is present in A-431 cells and that EGF treatment of A-431 cells stimulates phosphorylation of PLC-II on both tyrosine and serine residues.

Quantitative imaging of free and total intracellular calcium in cultured cells

Techniques of fluorescence and ion microscopies were combined to study the free [Ca2+] and total Ca in NIH 3T3 fibroblast and L6 rat myoblast cells. Free Ca2+ measurements with the Ca2+ indicator fura-2 and digital imaging reveal an inhomogeneous distribution of free cytoplasmic Ca2+ in both cell lines. Fura-2 also reveals a difference in free Ca2+ activity between the nucleus and cytoplasm of cells. Ion microscopic observations on sister cells show that total Ca in the cytoplasm is also inhomogeneously distributed and that mean cytoplasmic levels of total Ca are higher than levels in the nuclei. In the nuclei of NIH 3T3 cells, the mean free [Ca2+] and total [Ca] were 110 +/- 30 nM and 225 +/- 43 microM, respectively, while regions in the cell cytoplasm contained up to 490 +/- 270 nM free [Ca2+] and 559 +/- 184 microM mean total [Ca]. Intracellular total Ca was greater than 3 orders of magnitude higher than intracellular free Ca2+ in either nuclear or cytoplasmic compartments. Perinuclear cytoplasmic regions in 3T3 cells contained higher free and total Ca than the cell nucleus. Loading of cells with fura-2 did not modify the subcellular distribution of total K, Na, Ca, or Mg. This combination of two powerful ion imaging techniques provides a comparison between free and total calcium in cells and introduces a different approach for examining the role of this important element in cell physiology.

Rapid phosphorylation and reorganization of ezrin and spectrin accompany morphological changes induced in A-431 cells by epidermal growth factor

Addition of EGF to human carcinoma A-431 cells is known to induce membrane ruffling after approximately 2 min (Chinkers, M., J. A. McKanna, and S. Cohen. 1979. J. Cell Biol. 83:260-265) and the phosphorylation of a protein referred to as p81, a known substrate for various protein-tyrosine kinases (Cooper, J. A., D. F. Bowen-Pope, E. Raines, R. Ross, and T. Hunter. 1982. Cell. 31:263-273). Ezrin, a Mr approximately 80,000 cytoskeletal protein of the isolated chicken microvillar core, is present in actin-containing cell surface structures of a wide variety of cells (Bretscher, A. 1983. J. Cell Biol. 97:425-432). Ezrin was then found to be homologous to p81 and to be phosphorylated on tyrosine in response to EGF (Gould, K. L., J. A. Cooper, A. Bretscher, and T. Hunter. 1986. J. Cell Biol. 102:660-669). Here, the purification of ezrin from human placenta is described. Antibodies to human ezrin, together with antibodies to other microfilament-associated proteins, were used to follow the distribution and phosphorylation of these proteins in A-431 cells after EGF treatment. EGF induces the formation of microvillar-like surface structures on these cells within 30 s and these give way to membrane ruffles at approximately 2-5 min after EGF addition; the cells then round up after approximately 10-20 min. Ezrin is recruited into the microvillar-like structures and the membrane ruffles, and is phosphorylated on tyrosine and serine in a time course that parallels the formation and disappearance of these surface structures. Spectrin is recruited into the membrane ruffles and shows a similar rapid kinetics of phosphorylation, but only on serine residues, and remains phosphorylated through the rounding up of the cells. The microvillar-like structures and membrane ruffles are also enriched in fimbrin and alpha-actinin. Myosin becomes rapidly reorganized into a striated pattern that is consistent with it playing a role in cell rounding. These results show that two cortical proteins, ezrin and spectrin, become phosphorylated in a time course coincident with remodeling of the cell surface. The results are consistent with the notion that ezrin phosphorylation may play a role in the formation of cell surface projections whereas spectrin phosphorylation may be involved in remodelling of more planar areas of the cell surface.