Pharmacological study of gastrin-mediated amylase release in pancreatic acinar cells (AR4-2J)

In rat pancreatic acinar cells, amylase release and Ca2+ mobilization are related to the occupancy of CCKA receptor. The rat pancreatic acinar cell line (AR4-2J) possesses both CCKA (CCKA R) and CCKB (CCKB R) sub-type receptors. Using this cell line we attempted to determine the relative involvement of each sub-type in both amylase release and Ca2+ mobilization. For this purpose we used L 364718 a selective antagonist for CCKA R and PD 135158 a selective antagonist for CCKB R. We showed on AR4-2J cells that: a minority of CCKA R (Kd = 0.7 nM), a classical CCKB R (Kd = 0.93 nM) and a new high affinity gastrin binding site (Kd = 2.1 pM) coexisted; CCK through CCKA R and CCKB R, was more potent to stimulate amylase secretion (EC50 = 34 pM) and Ca2+ mobilization (EC50 = 30 pM) than to occupy its receptor. Gastrin induced a biphasic stimulation of amylase release. Gastrin through CCKB R was equally potent to stimulate amylase release (EC50 = 1.72 nM) and Ca2+ mobilization (EC50 = 3.1 nM), whereas through the high affinity gastrin binding site, gastrin-induced amylase release (EC50 = 0.73 pM) did not correlate with the Ca2+ mobilization (EC50 = 3.1 nM). These results demonstrated for the first time the existence, on AR4-2J cells, of a high affinity gastrin receptor whose occupation by gastrin induces amylase release.