Forskolin refractoriness. Exposure to the diterpene alters guanine nucleotide-dependent adenylate cyclase and calcium-uptake activity of cells cultured from the rat aorta.

Cells with the morphological properties of endothelial cells were cultured from the rat aorta. The cultured cells accumulated 45Ca2+ from the medium in a manner which was stimulated by forskolin and by 8-bromo-cyclic AMP. Pretreating the cultures for 20 h with forskolin diminished forskolin-dependent Ca2+-uptake activity. Adenylate cyclase activity of cultured cell homogenates was stimulated by guanosine 5'-[beta, gamma-imido]triphosphate (p[NH]ppG) and forskolin, and by isoprenaline in the presence, but not in the absence, of guanine nucleotide. p[NH]ppG increased forskolin sensitivity and caused a leftward shift in the forskolin dose-response curve. Pretreating the cultured cells with forskolin for 20 h, conditions that decreased forskolin-dependent Ca2+ uptake, increased basal and guanine nucleotide-dependent adenylate cyclase activity, but not forskolin-dependent activity determined in the absence of p[NH]ppG. Forskolin pretreatment diminished p[NH]ppG's capacity to increase forskolin sensitivity, but did not have a significant effect on either the sensitivity of adenylate cyclase to p[NH]ppG or its responsiveness to isoprenaline. These results suggest that the Ca2+-uptake mechanism is cyclic AMP-dependent and that guanine nucleotides mediated forskolin-dependent cyclic AMP production by the intact cells. In addition, there may be different guanine nucleotide requirements for hormone-receptor coupling and forskolin activation.