Development of muscarinic cholinergic inhibition of adenylate cyclase in embryonic chick heart. Its relationship to changes in the inhibitory guanine nucleotide regulatory protein.

Parasympathetic and sympathetic innervation of the embryonic chick heart proceed non-coordinately. beta-Adrenergic agonists mediate an increase in beating rate in embryonic chick heart prior to ingrowth of the vagus nerve (Culver, N. G., and Fishman, D. A. (1977) Am. J. Physiol. 232, R116-R123) while muscarinic agonists exert relatively little effect on beating rate in hearts 2-4 days in ovo (Papanno, A. J. (1979) Pharmacol. Rev. 29, 3-33). Studies of developmental changes in the ability of muscarinic agonists to inhibit adenylate cyclase activity and their relationship to the development of a physiologic response of the embryonic chick heart to muscarinic stimulation have been inconclusive. In the current studies the ability of isoproterenol to stimulate adenylate cyclase activity did not change during development. Maximum stimulation above basal was 760 pmol of cAMP/10 min/mg of proterin with an IC50 of 1.5 X 10(-6) M for isoproterenol in homogenates of hearts 2 1/2, 3 1/2, and 10 days in ovo and 3 days posthatching. However, inhibition of isoproterenol-stimulated adenylate cyclase activity by carbamylcholine increased from 7.6% with a IC50 for carbamylcholine of 16 +/- 5.0 microM at day 2 1/2 in ovo to 29% with an IC50 of 0.4 +/- 0.1 microM at day 10 in ovo and to 43% with a IC50 of 0.6 +/- 0.1 microM at 3 days posthatching. Since previous data had demonstrated the presence of muscarinic receptors as early as 2 1/2 days in ovo (Galper, J. B., Klein, W., and Catterall, W. A. (1977) J. Biol. Chem. 252, 8692-8699), studies of developmental changes in guanine nucleotide-coupling proteins were carried out to determine whether early in development muscarinic receptors were uncoupled from a physiologic response. Studies of pertussis toxin-catalyzed ADP-ribosylation of homogenates of embryonic chick heart with [32P]NAD demonstrated the presence of two ADP-ribosylated proteins at 39,000 and 41,000 kDa, respectively. Both ADP-ribosylation and immunoblotting of homogenates with an antibody to the 39-kDa guanine nucleotide-binding protein in bovine brain demonstrated that the 39-kDa alpha protein increased 1.8-fold between days 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 in ovo and another 1.8-fold from day 3 1/2 to 10 in ovo in parallel with the increase in the extent of muscarinic inhibition of adenylate cyclase activity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)