Biosynthesis of molecular species of CDP-diglyceride from endogenously-labeled phosphatidate in rat liver microsomes

The biosynthesis of [14C] CDP-diglyceride was studied using rat liver microsomes which were endogenously labeled with [14C] phosphatidic acid by preincubation of unlabeled microsomes with sn-[14C] glycerol-3-phosphate and appropriate cofactors. The formation of CDP-diglyceride from radioactive phosphatidate showed an absolute requirement for CTP and MgCl2. The newly formed [14C] CDP-diglyceride was characterized by thin layer chromatography (TLC), isotopic labeling from radioactive CTP, and its ability to serve as substrate for the microsomal enzyme, CDP-diglyceride: inositol phosphatidyltransferase. The distributions of radioactive glycerol-3-phosphate among the various chemical classes of microsomal [14C] phosphatidate and [14C] CDP-diglyceride were determined following argentation TLC of their 1,2-diglyceride acetate derivatives. Most of the radioactivity among the phosphatidic acids was present in the monoenoic (36%) and dienoic (33%) molecular species, whereas 10, 8, 4, and 8% were associated with the saturates, trienes, tetraenes, and polyenes, respectively. Similar distributions of radioactivity were found among the corresponding classes of newly formed CDP-diglyceride. Only a slight enrichment of radioactivity in the tetraenoic CDP-diglyceride was found relative to the corresponding phosphatidates. Therefore, under the conditions of study, the microsomal CTP: phosphatidate cytidylyltransferase produces mainly monoenoic and dienoic species of CDP-diglyceride and shows little specificity towards different molecular species of phosphatidic acids. The present results suggest also that the arachidonoyl phosphatidate derived from the microsomal acylation of sn-glycerol-3-phosphate is not likely the major source of arachidonic acid in liver phosphatidylinositol.