Effect of cholera toxin on histamine release from bone marrow-derived mouse mast cells

Bone marrow-derived mouse mast cells were sensitized with monoclonal mouse IgE antibody and treated with cholera toxin (CT), which ADP-ribosylated the alpha-subunit of the stimulatory guanine nucleotide-binding regulatory protein Gs, prior to challenge with either antigen or thrombin. The CT treatment increased intracellular cAMP levels, but neither enhanced nor inhibited antigen-induced histamine release or arachidonate release. The same treatment of the sensitized bone marrow-derived mouse mast cells with CT markedly enhanced thrombin-induced histamine release without affecting arachidonate release. The CT treatment failed to affect antigen-induced and thrombin-induced generation of inositol trisphosphate and of diacylglycerol or mobilization of intracellular Ca2+. The results indicate that Gs in bone marrow-derived mouse mast cells is not involved in the transduction of the antigen-induced or thrombin-induced triggering signal to phospholipase C, which initiates the enhancement of phosphatidylinositol turnover. The enhancement of thrombin-induced histamine release by CT treatment with the observations that thrombin-induced histamine release was inhibited by pretreatment of the cells with pertussis toxin suggest that the involvement of a guanine nucleotide-binding regulatory protein in thrombin-induced biochemical events is an event distal to Ca2+ mobilization.