The protein tyrosine kinase pp60c-src is activated upon platelet stimulation

Stimulation of human platelets causes a dramatic increase in phosphorylation of various proteins at tyrosine residues. The abundance of protein tyrosine kinases of the src-family in platelets, particularly pp60c-src, suggests an important role of these kinases in response to stimulation events. We have shown that pp60c-src is activated on agonist-induced platelet stimulation with respect to its substrate affinity. This was accompanied by phosphorylation of pp60c-src at Ser-12, a residue which is phosphorylated by PKC. Inhibition of PKC with a specific inhibitor, Ro-31-8220, suppressed thrombin-induced translocation of pp60c-src to the cytoskeleton. On the basis of our data, we suggest that the cytoskeletal association of pp60c-src is dependent on phosphorylation of pp60c-src at Ser-12 by PKC. Phosphorylation at Ser-12 in the membrane-binding domain might be the signal that displaces pp60c-src from the plasma membrane and, accompanied with the increased substrate affinity, facilitates phosphorylation of putative substrates.