Regulation of angiotensin II type 1 receptor mRNA in neuronal cultures of normotensive and spontaneously hypertensive rat brains by phorbol esters and forskolin.

Neuronal cells in primary culture from the brains of normotensive, Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats and spontaneously hypertensive (SH) rats express angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptors. Treatment of WKY rat brain cultures with a phorbol ester, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), causes a time- and dose-dependent increase in the levels of an approximately 2.3-kb AT1 receptor mRNA transcript. A maximal stimulation of 4.5-fold in the AT1 receptor mRNA transcript level is observed with 200 nM PMA in 4 h and is blocked by 1 microM staurosporine. Forskolin also increases the AT1 receptor mRNA levels in WKY rat brain neurons in a time- and dose-dependent manner, and a 4.5-fold stimulation is achieved with 50 microM forskolin in 4 h. The stimulatory effects of both PMA and forskolin are completely abolished by coincubation of neuronal cultures with 1 microM actinomycin D. In addition, nuclear run-on assay indicated an increase in the transcription of AT1 receptor mRNA in WKY rat brain neurons treated with either PMA or forskolin. Both PMA and forskolin also stimulate levels of AT1 receptor mRNA in neuronal cultures from brain of the SH rat. The degree of stimulation in these cultures is comparable to that in WKY rat brain neurons. These observations show that although the basal AT1 receptor gene expression is significantly higher in SH rat brain neurons compared with WKY rat brain neurons, the protein kinase C- and protein kinase A-responsive stimulation is not altered. These data suggest a possible involvement of protein kinase C and protein kinase A response elements in AT1 receptor gene expression.