Ca2+-dependent conversion of phosphatidylinositol to phosphatidate in neutrophils stimulated with fMet-Leu-Phe or ionophore A23187.

Human and rabbit neutrophils stimulated with formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMet-Leu-Phe) and A23187 show a loss of phosphatidylinositol and an increase in phosphatidate. In cells prelabelled with 32Pi it would be expected that the newly synthesised phosphatidate would have the same specific activity as cellular ATP, provided that the loss of phosphatidylinositol is by phospholipase C attack and the resultant diacyglycerol is phosphorylated by ATP. Instead, it is demonstrated that the specific activity of newly-formed phosphatidate is less than a tenth of the specific activity of ATP initially followed by a gradual increase. The time-course of mass and of [3H]glycerol-labelled phosphatidate formation (from cells pulse-labelled with [3H]glycerol) is similar to enzyme release but differs from the generation of 32P-labelled phosphatidate (from cells prelabelled with 32Pi). The source of the newly formed phosphatidate is most likely from phosphatidylinositol because: (a) The increase in phosphatidate is always accompanied by a loss of phosphatidylinositol with no changes in the other lipids. (b) Cells pulse-labelled with [3H]glycerol lose label from phosphatidylinositol only and this is accompanied by an increase in label in phosphatidate. (c) The specific activity of the newly synthesised phosphatidate is closest to the specific activity of phosphatidylinositol. One plausible explanation for these results is that phosphatidylinositol is directly converted to phosphatidate by phospholipase D action and the resulting phosphatidate accumulates radioactivity by exchange of its phosphate group with ATP. It is also shown that enzyme secretion and conversion of phosphatidylinositol to phosphatidate can depend on both intra- as well as extracellular Ca2+. Depletion of the intracellular pool of Ca2+ is essential to inhibit totally the enzyme secretion and the conversion of phosphatidylinositol to phosphatidate in agreement with our previous results on rabbit neutrophils (Cockcroft, S., et al. (1981) Biochem. J. 200, 501-508).