Phosphoinositide breakdown as an indirect link between stimulation and aggregation of rat platelets by thrombin and...

When washed rat platelets (1.5 x 10(9)/ml) were stimulated by a threshold concentration of thrombin (0.3 unit/ml) or collagen (10 micrograms/ml), a lag period of about 10 or 30 s, respectively, was seen before the start of aggregation. During the lag period, [32P]phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate was degraded as the earliest event within 5-10 s of addition of the stimulus. However, though the extent of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate degradation within 10 s of addition of collagen was greater than that within 20 s of addition of thrombin (0.3 unit/ml), a lag of about 20 s remained before the initiation of aggregation by collagen. This casts doubt on the hypothesis that the stimulus-dependent phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate breakdown induces the aggregation of platelets. Phosphatidylinositol labeled with 32Pi or [1-14C]arachidonic acid was scarcely degraded during the lag period. As aggregation proceeded, [14C-arachidonic acid]phosphatidylinositol was degraded with generation of diacylglycerol, phosphatidic acid, arachidonic acid and its metabolites. The maximum aggregation by collagen of rat platelets in which arachidonic acid of phospholipids was replaced in vivo with eicosapentaenoic acid was reduced, but that by thrombin was not, though reduction of thromboxane A2 generation was caused by both stimuli. Indomethacin also fully inhibited the aggregation induced by collagen, but not that induced by thrombin. Hence, thromboxane A2 is required for full aggregation by collagen, but not that by thrombin. These results indicate that thrombin-induced phosphoinositide metabolism may proceed independently of aggregation.