Fidelity in functional coupling of the rat P2Y1 receptor to phospholipase C

1. The rat homologue of the P2Y1 receptor has been heterologously expressed in 1321N1 human astrocytoma cells and in C6 rat glioma cells. 2. As has been shown previously for the turkey and human P2Y1 receptors, the rat P2Y1 receptor expressed in either cell type responded to 2MeSATP with increases in inositol phosphate accumulation that were competitively blocked by the antagonist PPADS. Neither of the wild type cell lines exhibited inositol phosphate responses to P2Y1 receptor agonists. 3. Expression of the rat P2Y1 receptor did not confer a capacity of 2MeSATP to inhibit adenylyl cyclase activity in 1321N1 cells. Moreover, the inhibition of adenylyl cyclase mediated by an endogenous P2Y receptor of C6 glioma cells was not enhanced by expression of the rat P2Y1 receptor. The P2Y receptor-mediated inhibition of adenylyl cyclase in C6 glioma cells expressing both the endogenous P2Y receptor and the rat P2Y1 receptor remained unaffected by PPADS. 4. Since the P2Y receptor responsible for inhibition of adenylyl cyclase in C6 glioma cells does not share the pharmacological or functional properties of the P2Y1 receptor, even when both receptors originate from the same species and are simultaneously expressed in the same cell line, it is concluded that the P2Y1 receptor is distinct from an endogenous P2Y receptor in C6 cells that couples to inhibition of adenylyl cyclase.