Oleic acid-induced Ca2+ mobilization in human platelets: is oleic acid an intracellular messenger?

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of oleic acid (OA) on intracellular Ca2+ mobilization in human platelets. When applied extracellularly, OA produced a concentration dependent rise in cytosolic [Ca2+] ([Ca2+]cyt) when extracellular [Ca2+] (Ca2+]ext) was zero (presence of EGTA), suggesting that OA caused an intracellular release of Ca2+. Intracellular Ca2+ release was directly proportional to entry of OA into platelets and OA entry was indirectly proportional to [Ca2+]ext. In permeabilized platelets, OA caused the release of 45Ca2+ from ATP dependent intracellular stores. Finally, our results show that thrombin stimulated the release of [3H]OA from platelet phospholipids. The saturated fatty acids stearic and palmitic acid did not stimulate an increase in [Ca2+]cyt under these conditions, but the unsaturated fatty acid, linolenic acid produced effects similar to those of OA, suggesting specificity among fatty acids for effects on [Ca2+]cyt. Taken together, our experiments suggest that OA which has been incorporated into platelet phospholipids was released into the cytosol by thrombin stimulation. Our experiments also show that OA stimulates Ca2+ release from intracellular stores. These results support the hypothesis that OA may serve as an intracellular messenger in human platelets.