Characterization of myocardial extracellular ATP receptors by photoaffinity labelling and functional assays

Extracellular ATP receptors in rat ventricular myocytes were investigated through intact cell photolabelling followed by protein isolation. 8-Azido-ATP (8Az-ATP) was used for labelling under specific conditions determined by parallel functional studies. In those studies ATP-induced cytosolic Ca2+ transients were irreversibly and specifically inhibited by UV-photolyzed 8Az-ATP, but not by 2-azido-ATP (2Az-ATP), even in the presence of high concentrations of phosphonucleotides not affecting myocardial ATP receptors. Under those conditions background labelling is minimized and radioactive 8Az-ATP specifically labels a band of 45-48 kDa on a SDS gel. Labelling under the above conditions in the presence of ATP gamma S or 2-methylthio-ATP (2-meSATP), which are distinct for two functionally different cardiac ATP receptors, shows two different proteins within the same band consistent with the possible labelling of these two receptors.