The effect of erythropoietin on the adenylate cyclase activity of rabbit bone marrow erythroblasts.

The involvement of adenylate cyclase in the response elicited by erythropoietin was investigated in fractionated erythroblasts obtained from anaemic rabbit bone marrow. Addition of 0.2 U/ml erythropoietin to cell cultures caused a transient increase in the activity of plasma membrane adenylate cyclase, which was observed within 5 minutes, was maximal by 20 minutes and disappeared within 4 hours. The magnitude of the response to hormonal stimulation depended on the stage of erythroid cell development and was greater in the more immature cells. Erythropoietin could also stimulate the basal activity of adenylate cyclase in an in vitro assay containing plasma membranes of immature, but not mature, erythroid cells. The degree of activation was hormone-concentration dependent, was maximal at 0.2-0.5 U/ml erythropoietin (5-12 nM) and was observed in the absence of exogenous guanine nucleotides. The in vitro effect of erythropoietin, however, was abolished by GDP (S) and extensive washing of the membranes made hormone action GTP-dependent. The ability of the hormone to stimulate adenylate cyclase activity in vitro was inversely related to the extent of hormonal stimulation in vivo. This desensitization was observed within 20 minutes and persisted for many hours. It is suggested that erythropoietin activates the adenylate cyclase of immature erythroblasts via a receptor and a guanine nucleotide-binding protein with high affinity for GTP.