Alpha 1-adrenergic stimulation of phosphatidylinositol turnover and respiration of brown fat cells.

The alpha-adrenergic agonist phenylephrine (in the presence of the beta-adrenergic antagonist alprenolol) stimulated respiration and incorporation of [3H]glycerol and [32P] Pi into phosphatidylinositol of hamster brown fat cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Both responses were preferentially inhibited by prazosin as compared with yohimbine, indicating alpha 1 specificity. Uniquely, prazosin inhibition of phenylephrine-stimulated phosphatidylinositol metabolism had two components, since 30% of the response was inhibited by less than 1 nM prazosin, 10 nM gave no further inhibition, and 100 nM prazosin completely inhibited the response. The phosphatidylinositol response was still present in Ca2+-free buffer, although reduced in magnitude. The concentration relationships of the effects of agonists and antagonists were compared with those of previous results of [3H]prazosin binding and with phenylephrine potency to compete for binding. On the basis of these comparisons, it is suggested that the highly prazosin-sensitive part of the phosphatidylinositol response may be closely associated with receptor occupation.