Endothelin receptors: binding and phosphoinositide breakdown in human myometrium

Endothelin (ET) binding sites and phosphoinositide hydrolysis induced by ET peptides were studied in the nonpregnant human myometrium. Saturation binding experiments revealed that the proportion of [125I]ET-1 binding sites was 4-fold higher than that of [125I]ET-3 binding sites, whereas Kd values were not significantly different. In competition binding studies, unlabeled peptides displaced [125I]ET-1 binding with the following order of affinity ET-1 > sarafotoxin 6b > ET-3 >> sarafotoxin 6c, whereas very similar Ki values were obtained with the four peptides for the displacement of [125I]ET-3 binding. Approximately 75% of [125I]ET-1 binding sites exhibited high affinity to BQ 123 ([cyclo(D-Trp,D-Asp,L-Pro,D-Val,L-Leu)]), an ETA selective antagonist. ET-1 elicited a time-dependent accumulation of [3H]inositol phosphates in myometrial explants prelabeled with myo-[3H]inositol. All the peptides examined, ET-1, ET-3, sarafotoxin 6b and sarafotoxin 6c were able to induce phosphoinositide hydrolysis in a dose-dependent manner, ET-1 being more potent than ET-3 with corresponding EC50 values of 32 +/- 12 and 441 +/- 37 nM, respectively. Sarafotoxin 6c induced a moderate stimulation of inositol phosphates accumulation. ET-1- and ET-3-induced accumulation of [3H]inositol phosphates was (40-45%) inhibited in part by 100 microM BQ 123, whereas sarafotoxin 6c response was not affected by the ETA-antagonist. All these results indicate the presence of ETA and ETB receptors coupled to phospholipase C in human myometrium. Although ET-1 and ET-3 bind to both subtypes, sarafotoxin 6c only interacts with the ETB subtype.