Hydrolysis of diadenosine 5',5''-P',P''-triphosphate (Ap3A) by porcine aortic endothelial cells

Diadenosine triphosphate is present in platelet-dense granules and released quantitatively on platelet aggregation. We have found that intact porcine aortic endothelial cells can efficiently hydrolyze extracellular diadenosine triphosphate. The products of diadenosine triphosphate hydrolysis are adenosine monophosphate and adenosine diphosphate. Adenosine diphosphate is a potent stimulus of platelet aggregation. Since platelet-dense granules contain high concentrations of adenosine triphosphate and adenosine diphosphate, we examined endothelial cell hydrolysis of a mixture of diadenosine triphosphate and adenosine triphosphate. We find that the presence of adenosine triphosphate severely inhibits the hydrolysis of diadenosine triphosphate. Thus, although endothelial cells can rapidly clear extracellular diadenosine triphosphate, during platelet aggregation the hydrolysis of diadenosine triphosphate may be slow due to the presence of high concentrations of other adenine nucleotides. This phenomenon may be important physiologically if, as current evidence implies, diadenosine triphosphate is involved in the maintenance of hemostasis.