Identification and characterization of both the cytosolic and particulate forms of cyclic GMP-stimulated cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase from rat liver.

Two enzymes displaying cyclic GMP-stimulated cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase activity were purified from rat liver to apparent homogeneity: a 'particulate enzyme' found as an integral membrane protein associated with the plasma membrane, and a 'soluble' enzyme found in the cytosol. The physical properties of these enzymes were very similar, being dimers of Mr 134,000, composed in each instance of two subunits of Mr = 66,000-67,000. Both enzymes showed similar kinetics for cyclic AMP hydrolysis. They are both high-affinity enzymes, with kinetic constants for the particulate enzyme of Km = 34 microM and Vmax. = 4.0 units/mg of protein and for the cytosolic enzyme Km = 40 microM and Vmax. = 4.8 units/mg of protein. In both instances hydrolysis of cyclic AMP appeared to show apparent positive co-operativity, with Hill coefficients (happ.) of 1.5 and 1.6 for the particulate and cytosolic enzymes respectively. However, in the presence of 2 microM-cyclic GMP, the hydrolysis of cyclic AMP obeyed Michaelis kinetics (happ. = 1) for both enzymes. The addition of micromolar concentrations of cyclic GMP had little effect on the Vmax. for cyclic AMP hydrolysis, but lowered the Km for cyclic AMP hydrolysis to around 20 microM in both cases. However, at low cyclic AMP substrate concentrations, cyclic GMP was a more potent activator of the particulate enzyme than was the soluble enzyme. The activity of these enzymes could be selectively inhibited by cis-16-palmitoleic acid and by arachidonic acid. In each instance, however, the hydrolysis of cyclic AMP became markedly more sensitive to such inhibition when low concentrations of cyclic GMP were present. Tryptic peptide maps of iodinated preparations of these two purified enzyme species showed that there was considerable homology between these two enzyme forms.