Thrombin-induced abnormal platelet activation in spontaneously hypertensive rats is linked with phosphoinositides turnover and phosphorylation of 47,000 and 20,000 dalton proteins.

We have shown earlier that abnormal platelet aggregation in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) is not caused by prostaglandins. In this study platelets from SHR and normotensive (Wistar Kyoto, WKY) rats were used to examine the role of phosphoinositides and phosphorylation of 47,000 and 20,000 Dalton proteins in abnormal platelet activation in hypertension. Thrombin (0.05 U/ml) induced a rapid decrease in (32P)-P04 labelled phosphatidylinositol-4, 5-bisphosphate (PIP2), phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate (PIP) and phosphatidylinositol (PI) in washed rat platelets. However, significantly greater loss of PIP2 and PI was seen in SHR platelets than in WKY platelets. For example the level of PIP2 declined by 32% in SHR platelets and only by 13% in WKY platelets at five seconds of incubation with thrombin. The loss of PI was similar in SHR and WKY platelets for the first five seconds of incubation with thrombin. However, by 15 seconds SHR platelets showed a significantly greater loss (24%) in PI than in WKY platelets (8%). Thrombin induced a 14% and 18% decrease in PIP at three seconds in WKY and SHR platelets respectively. In SHR platelets PIP level returned to the baseline in five seconds and then rose to 20% above the baseline by 30 seconds. In contrast PIP level in WKY platelets slowly reached the basal value by 30 seconds. Thrombin also produced a two- to three-fold greater accumulation of (32P)-phosphatidic acid (PA) in SHR platelets than in WKY platelets. Thrombin (0.05 U/ml) induced rapid phosphorylation of 47,000 Dalton (P47) and 20,000 Dalton (P20) proteins in both WKY and SHR platelets. Thrombin induced a four-fold greater increase in phosphorylation of P47 in SHR platelets than in WKY platelets in the first five seconds. Thrombin produced significantly greater increase in phosphorylation of P20 in SHR platelets (34% and 41%) than in WKY platelets (18% and 28%) at 5 and 15 seconds. Phosphorylation of P20 was followed by dephosphorylation in both WKY and SHR platelets. Aspirin (500 microM) did not affect phosphorylation of either P47 or P20 in SHR or WKY platelets. In other experiments prostaglandin E1 (0.5 microM), which stimulates adenylate cyclase via a guanine nucleotide regulatory protein termed Gs, caused an eighteen-fold increase in cyclic AMP level in SHR platelets as compared to a six-fold increase in WKY platelets. These data lead us to suggest that increased turnover of phosphoinositides and increased phosphorylation of P47 and P20 are involved in abnormal platelet activation in SHR platelets.