Effects of organometals on cellular signaling. II. Inhibition of reincorporation of free arachidonic acid and influence on paf-acether synthesis by triethyllead.

Organometal compounds affect many enzymes, especially those containing SH-groups as acyl- and acetyltransferases involved in lysophospholipid reacylation. In HL-60 cells, organotin and -lead compounds stimulate phospholipase A2 activity, contributing thus to increase the level of lysophospholipids. In the present study, we have tested whether paf-acether (paf) biosynthesis was affected by treatment with triethyllead (Et3PbCl) in HL-60 cells. Et3PbCl inhibits the incorporation of exogenous arachidonic acid in the presence of high (> or = 50 microM) but not low concentrations (< or = 1 microM). High concentrations of the lead compound are unable to induce paf formation by itself, however, lower concentrations (< or = 10 microM) acted synergistically with TPA or fMLP to stimulate paf formation. Whereas unstimulated cells produced 0.4 pmole paf/2 x 10(6) cells, the stimulation with low fMLP (0.1 microM) resulted in the synthesis of 1.7 pmole and with low TPA (2 ng/ml) in 0.5 pmole paf. Preincubation of the cells with 10 microM Et3PbCl for 20 to 30 min increased the amount of paf formed by these cells to 3.3 pmole after treatment with 0.1 microM fMLP and 1.5 pmole after TPA. Furthermore, the results showed an inhibition of acetyltransferase (the key enzyme of paf synthesis) by the high and not by low concentrations of the lead compound. We conclude that low concentrations of Et3PbCl (< or = 10 microM) may act as a synergistic inducer of paf synthesis initiated via a receptor-coupled stimulation.