Stimulatory and inhibitory effects of forskolin on adenylate cyclase in rat normal hepatocytes and hepatoma cells.

Forskolin synergistically potentiated adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate formation by prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) in rat normal hepatocytes freshly prepared by collagenase digestion and rat ascites hepatoma AH66 cells, but dose-dependently inhibited the accumulation by PGE1 in AH66F cells. Forskolin activated adenylate cyclase in a dose-dependent manner in homogenates of all cell lines. In normal hepatocytes and AH66 cells, simultaneous addition of forskolin and other adenylate cyclase activators [isoproterenol (IPN), PGE1, guanosine 5'-triphosphate sodium salt (GTP), 5'-guanylylimidodiphosphate sodium salt (Gpp (NH)p), NaF, cholera toxin, islet activating protein and MnCl2] gave greater than additive responses. On the other hand, in AH66F cells, the effect of forskolin on adenylate cyclase was hardly influenced by GTP, but forskolin diminished the activities induced by high concentrations of GTP to that by the diterpene alone. Forskolin also significantly inhibited the PGE1-stimulated and the guanine nucleotide binding regulatory protein-stimulated activities. Because AH66F cells were insensitive to IPN, the combination with forskolin and IPN gave similar activity to that obtained with the diterpene alone. The effect of forskolin on the activation by manganese ion was neither synergistic nor inhibitory but was additive in AH66F cells. These results suggest that forskolin promotes the interaction between the stimulatory guanine nucleotide binding regulatory protein and the catalytic unit in normal hepatocytes and AH66 cells, but in AH66F cells forskolin interferes with the coupling of the two components of adenylate cyclase.