Adenosine causes cAMP-dependent activation of chick embryo red cell carbonic anhydrase and 2,3-DPG synthesis.

In late chick embryos, coordinate activation of red cell carbonic anhydrase II (CAII) and 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG) synthesis is initiated by hypoxia. The effects are mediated by unidentified hormonal effectors resident in chick plasma. In the present investigation, we have analyzed the effect of adenosine receptor stimulation on embryonic red cell CAII and 2,3-DPG synthesis. We find that primitive and definitive embryonic red blood cells from chick have an A2a adenosine receptor. Stimulation of the receptor with metabolically stable adenosine analogues causes a large increase of red cell adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) and subsequent activation of red cell CAII and 2,3-DPG production in definitive red blood cells and of CAII synthesis in primitive red blood cells. Direct stimulation of adenylyl cyclase with forskolin has the same effect. Analysis of red cell protein pattern after labeling with [35S]methionine shows that stimulation of red cell cAMP levels activates synthesis of several other proteins aside from CAII. Presence of actinomycin D inhibits cAMP-dependent changes of protein synthesis, indicating that cAMP-dependent transcriptional activation is required. In contrast to the stable adenosine receptor analogues, adenosine itself was a very weak agonist, unless its metabolism was significantly inhibited. Thus, besides adenosine, other effectors of the adenylyl cyclase system are likely to be involved in the O2 pressure-dependent regulation of red cell metabolism in late development of avian embryos.