Induction of cyclooxygenase-2 by secretory phospholipases A2 in nerve growth factor-stimulated rat serosal mast cells is facilitated by interaction with fibroblasts and mediated by a mechanism independent of their enzymatic functions.

Mast cells exhibit a biphasic (immediate and delayed) eicosanoid-biosynthetic response after stimulation with particular cytokines or Fc epsilonRI (high affinity receptor for IgE) cross-linking. Treatment of rat serosal connective tissue mast cells (CTMC) with nerve growth factor (NGF) induced only the delayed phase of PGD2 generation that depended on inducible cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), but not constitutive COX-1, even though the subcellular distributions of these isoforms were similar. Experiments using several phospholipase A2 (PLA2) isozyme-specific probes and inhibitors suggested that both constitutive cytosolic PLA2 and inducible type IIA secretory PLA2 (sPLA2) are involved in NGF-initiated, COX-2-dependent, delayed PGD2 generation in rat CTMC. A type IIA sPLA2 inhibitor, but neither cytosolic PLA2 nor COX inhibitors, reduced, while adding exogenous type IIA sPLA2 augmented, NGF-induced COX-2 expression and its attendant PGD2 generation, indicating that the sPLA2-mediated increase in delayed PGD2 generation was attributable mainly to enhanced COX-2 expression. Type IIA sPLA2 and its close relative type V sPLA2 associated with fibroblastic cell surfaces increased NGF-induced COX-2 expression more efficiently than the soluble enzymes, revealing a particular juxtacrine sPLA2 presentation route. Surprisingly, catalytically inactive type IIA sPLA2 mutants, which were incapable of promoting arachidonic acid release from cytokine-primed cells, retained the ability to enhance COX-2 expression in CTMC, indicating that the COX-2-inducing activities of sPLA2 are independent of their catalytic functions.