Effect of dual agonists on phosphoinositide pools in WRK-1 cells

Both vasopressin and bradykinin activate the phosphoinositide cycle in WRK-1 rat mammary tumour cells. When the two agonists are added simultaneously, partial additivity is observed with respect to disappearance of prelabelled phosphoinositides and accumulation of inositol phosphates; no additivity is observed with respect to resynthesis of phosphatidylinositol as assessed by monitoring [32P]Pi incorporation. Lack of complete additivity can be explained, at least in part, by heterologous desensitization. In order to determine whether the two agonists were accessing a common or individual hormone-sensitive phosphoinositide pools, cells were incubated with [32P]Pi in the presence of either vasopressin or bradykinin and subsequently restimulated with the alternative agonist. The lipid pool labelled in the presence of either agonist was sensitive to subsequent treatment by the other ligand, suggesting a common phosphoinositide pool. However, when cells were incubated with [32P]Pi in the absence of agonists, the time course of labelling of the hormone-sensitive pool was different for bradykinin and vasopressin, with that for bradykinin becoming labelled within a much shorter time. Thus although there is a significant overlap between the phosphoinositide pools responding to vasopressin and bradykinin, there is a small fraction of the hormone-sensitive lipid which responds only to bradykinin.