Neutrophil thrombospondin receptors are linked to GTP-binding proteins.

The extracellular matrix (ECM) protein thrombospondin (TSP) binds to specific receptors on polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) and stimulates motility. TSP can also enhance the response of PMNs to the formylated peptide, N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP). Our initial evidence suggesting that PMN TSP receptors were linked to GTP-binding proteins (G-proteins) came from studies using pertussis toxin (PT) and cholera toxin (CT) to inhibit TSP-mediated motility. Both PT and CT inhibited TSP-mediated chemotaxis and substrate-associated random migration. Inhibition was not indirectly caused by a rise in cAMP since neither dibutyryl cAMP (300 microM) nor 8-bromo-cAMP (300 microM) significantly affected TSP-mediated motility. In fact, TSP itself caused a significant rise in intracellular cAMP levels (from 7.2 +/- 0.3 to 14.2 +/- 0.1 pmol/10(6) cells). Although we could not test the PT sensitivity of TSP priming for FMLP-mediated chemotaxis (as PT inhibits FMLP-mediated chemotaxis itself), we evaluated the effect of CT on this response. CT completely abolished TSP-dependent priming of FMLP-mediated chemotaxis. Direct evidence for an interaction between TSP receptors and G-proteins was obtained by examining the effect of TSP on alpha-subunit ADP-ribosylation, GTPase activity, and GTP gamma S binding. We observed a decrease in the ability of FMLP to stimulate GTPase activity on membranes isolated from PMNs incubated with TSP. Furthermore, the PT-dependent ribosylation of Ci alpha 2,3 stimulated by FMLP was eliminated by TSP treatment. These data indicated that the two receptors share a pool of G-proteins. However, TSP did not block the CT-dependent ribosylation stimulated by FMLP, suggesting that TSP receptors may also interact with a different pool of Gi alpha 2,3. TSP itself significantly (P < 0.005) increased GTP hydrolysis in PMN membranes (to 110.6 +/- 2.7% of control values). In addition, GTP gamma S binding to membranes increased significantly (P < 0.005) following exposure to 10 nM TSP (to 108 +/- 1.4% of control values). Conversely, GTP treatment reduced the affinity of TSP for its receptor without altering total binding. These data demonstrate that TSP receptors are linked to G-proteins, a subpopulation of which also associates with FMLP receptors.