ATP- and polyphosphate-mediated stimulation of pp60c-src kinase activity in extracts from vascular smooth muscle

Recently, we reported that pp60c-src kinase activity was present in adult bovine coronary arterial smooth muscle and showed that the activity of the enzyme in in vitro immunoprecipitation assays was stimulated 20-60-fold by ATP (Di Salvo, J., Gifford, D., and Kokkinakis, A. (1988) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 153, 388-394). In the present study, ATP-mediated stimulation of activity was also demonstrated in extracts from aortic vascular smooth muscle. In contrast, no stimulation was apparent in extracts from brain. Stimulation of activity in vascular preparations was also induced with beta,gamma-imidoadenosine 5'-triphosphate (AMP.PNP), a nonmetabolizable analog of ATP, and with several other polyphosphates including ADP and sodium pyrophosphate. No stimulation occurred in response to monophosphates such as AMP or KH2PO4. As expected, the specific activity of pp60c-src in brain extracts did not change when the amount of extracted protein included in immunoprecipitation mixtures was increased. Unexpectedly, however, the specific activity of the vascular enzyme decreased markedly as the amount of extracted protein subjected to immunoprecipitation was increased. Following stimulation of pp60c-src in vascular extracts with ATP, the enzyme behaved in a fashion similar to pp60c-src extracted from brain. That is, the enhanced specific activity of the stimulated vascular enzyme did not decrease with increasing amounts of extracted protein. Moreover, mixing experiments in which vascular smooth muscle extracts were added to brain extracts showed that the muscle extracts contained a factor which inhibited pp60c-src kinase activity. This inhibition was blocked when the mixed extracts were immunoprecipitated in the presence of ATP, or when inhibitory extract was treated with trypsin. Taken together, these data suggest that pp60c-src kinase activity in vascular tissue may be subject to a novel regulatory mechanism involving an inhibitory protein factor which can be nullified by polyphosphates.