Influences of prostaglandins on electrophoretic mobility and aggregation of rabbit platelets

Prostaglandin A1 inhibits increases in intracellular calcium concentration, TXA(2) production and platelet activation

AIM

In our previous studies we found that cyclopentenane prostaglandin A1 (PGA1) had neuroprotective effects in a rodent ischemic model. In the present study we aimed to investigate the inhibitory effect of PGA1 on platelet function.

METHOD

The rate of aggregation of human platelets was measured by using turbidimetry. The rate of adhesion of platelets to cultured endothelial cells was determined by using [(3)H]-adenine labeled platelets. 5-Hydroxytryptamine release from platelets was measured with O-phthaldialdehyde fluorospectrophotometry. The levels of TXB(2), a stable metabolite of TXA(2), were determined by radioimmuno-assay. Alternations in platelet morphology were observed using an electron microscope, and the intraplatelet free calcium concentrations were measured with Fluo-3/AM FCM assay.

RESULTS

PGA1 significantly inhibited thrombin-, collagen- and ADP-induced aggregation and adhesion of platelets. The morphological changes of platelets induced by thrombin were blocked by PGA1. PGA1 inhibited the release of 5-hydroxytyptamine from dense granules and the synthesis of TXA(2).

CONCLUSION

PGA1 inhibits the activation of platelets probably through blocking increases in intracellular calcium concentration and TXA(2) synthesis.

Inhibition of phospholipase A2 by tiaramide in rabbit platelets

The mechanism by which tiaramide inhibited platelet aggregation was investigated using phospholipid labelling techniques by 14C-arachidonic acid (AA) and thin-layer chromatography. Tiaramide did not affect cyclo-oxygenase nor thromboxane synthetase, because TXB2 was detected in tiaramide-treated platelets, unlike aspirin-treated ones, and PGE2 and PGD2 did not increase, unlike in platelets treated with OKY-1581 (an inhibitor of thromboxane synthetase). Total phospholipid radioactivity was 82.5% of radioactivity recovered before aggregation, and this decreased to 49.0% (n = 5, P less than 0.05) after aggregation by collagen (30 micrograms/ml). AA radioactivity was 9.6% before aggregation and 40.0% after. Tiaramide (100 microM) restored total phospholipid and AA levels to those before aggregation. Tiaramide decreased the amount of AA liberated from 2-(3H-arachidonyl)phosphatidylcholine by whole platelet phospholipase A2 (PLA2). Tiaramide at 10 microM inhibited collagen-induced aggregation, but not that by AA. Tiaramide did not affect 45Ca-uptake by itself nor collagen-induced 45Ca-uptake from the external medium. Tiaramide did not inhibit intracellular Ca mobilization, and it did not affect the calmodulin-dependent cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase of rabbit brain. These facts suggest that tiaramide inhibits platelet PLA2 through mechanisms other than the blockade of Ca-influx and intracellular Ca mobilization or antagonism to calmodulin.

The metabolism of arachidonic acid to an antiaggregatory compound in isolated lungs of fetal and neonatal rabbits

The developmental pattern of fetal and neonatal rabbit lungs to generate an antiaggregatory compound from arachidonic acid (AA) was studied in isolated rabbit lungs, which were perfused with Krebs bicarbonate buffer. The antiaggregatory effect of the nonrecirculating perfusion effluent was tested by adding a small portion of the effluent to human platelet rich plasma (PRP) in a Born-type aggregometer before the aggregation was induced by ADP. The production of an antiaggregatory compound was minimal, when exogenous AA was not infused into the pulmonary circulation. When arachidonate (40 nmol/min) was infused into the pulmonary circulation of rabbits which were 1 day or 1 week old, the perfusion effluent significantly inhibited the ADP induced aggregation of PRP. Perfused lungs from fetal rabbits (gestation age 28-31 days) formed also an antiaggregatory compound from AA, but the antiaggregatory effect was not as great as 1 day after birth. It seems that neonatal rabbit lungs metabolize AA more to an antiaggregatory compound than late fetal lungs. The fact that the AA induced production of an antiaggregatory compound is inhibited by simultaneous infusion of indomethacin favours the hypothesis that this antiaggregatory compound could be PGI2.