Relation between the inhibition of aggregation and the concentration of cAMP in human and rat platelets

Adenosine inhibits the aggregation of human but not of rat platelets whereas both are inhibited by prostaglandin E1 or by the pyrimido-pyrimidine compound RA233. In human platelets all three agents increase adenosine-3'-5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP). If the inhibition of aggregation depended on this increase, adenosine might be expected not to increase cAMP in rat platelets. Under conditions in which adenosine inhibited aggregation and increased cAMP in human platelets, adenosine caused a similar increase in cAMP in rat platelets without inhibiting their aggregation. The aggregation of rat platelets was inhibited as effectively as that of human platelets by PGE1 or RA233 at concentrations which caused greater increases in cAMP than did the highest concentrations (2.8 X 10(-4) M) of adenosine it was possible to use. When the increase of cAMP in rat platelets by PGE1 was limited to that produced by adenosine, PGE1 like adenosine failed to inhibit aggregation. Therefore, the difference in the inhibitory effectiveness of adenosine on rat and human platelets was quantitative rather than qualitative and apparently depended on the inability of adenosine to increase cAMP sufficiently in rat platelets. When cAMP had been increased by adenosine, PGE1 or RA233, the addition of ADP caused cAMP to decrease rapidly in both human and rat platelets to between +22 and -18% of control values, except that the decrease in rat platelets was to +40% after RA233 had been present for 0.5 min before ADP. The increase in cAMP produced in rat platelets by adenosine at 5 X 10(-6) to 2.8 X 10(-4) M for 3 min was associated with a small increase in aggregation velocity. It is suggested that the comparative ineffectiveness of adenosine as an inhibitor of platelet aggregation, particularly with rat but less so also with human platelets, is because, unlike PGE1 or RA233, adenosine has two opposing actions on aggregation; one being inhibition by activating adenylate cyclase and increasing cAMP, and the other being potentiation by uptake. This hypothesis accounts for the present results as well as for the earlier observation that dipyridamole which prevents the uptake of adenosine potentiates its inhibitory effect on the aggregation of human platelets.