Expression of A1 adenosine receptors modulating dopamine-dependent cyclic AMP accumulation in the chick embryo retina

Dopamine and 2-chloroadenosine independently promoted the accumulation of cyclic AMP in retinas from 16-day-old chick embryos. The two compounds added together either in saturating or subsaturating concentrations were not additive for the accumulation of the cyclic nucleotide in the tissue. This fact was shown to be due to the existence of an adenosine receptor that mediates the inhibition of the dopamine-dependent cyclic AMP accumulation in the retina. Adenosine inhibited, in a dose-dependent fashion, the accumulation of cyclic AMP induced by dopamine in 12-day-old chick embryo retinas, with an IC50 of approximately 1 microM. This effect was not blocked by dipyridamole. N6-(l-Phenylisopropyl)adenosine, (l-PIA) was the most potent adenosine analog tested, showing an IC50 of 0.1 microM which was two orders of magnitude lower than its stereoisomer d-PIA (10 microM). The maximal inhibition of the dopamine-elicited cyclic AMP accumulation by adenosine and related analogs was 70%. The inhibitory effect promoted by adenosine was blocked by 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX) or by adenosine deaminase. Adenine was not effective; whereas ATP and AMP promoted the inhibition of the dopamine effect only at very high concentrations. Apomorphine was only 30% as effective as dopamine in promoting the cyclic AMP accumulation in retinas from 11- to 12-day-old embryos and 2-chloroadenosine did not interfere with the apomorphine-mediated shift in cyclic AMP levels. In the retinas from 5-day-old posthatched chickens dopamine and apomorphine were equally effective in eliciting the accumulation of cyclic AMP.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)