Abstract

The sodium channel activators veratridine and batrachotoxin, the sodium ionophore gramicidin, and the calcium ionophore ionomycin stimulated phosphoinositide breakdown, as indicated by the increased accumulation of [3H]inositol monophosphate in embryonic chick heart cells. The levels of [3H]inositol trisphosphate and [3H]inositol bisphosphate were also increased by veratridine, indicating that there was increased hydrolysis of phosphatidylinositol bisphosphate by phospholipase C. The response to veratridine required both extracellular sodium and calcium, suggesting that calcium entry via Na/Ca exchange might activate phospholipase C. Fluorescence measurements with fura-2 confirmed that the sodium agents greatly increased the cytoplasmic calcium concentration. Veratridine (100 microM) increased cytoplasmic calcium from 94 +/- 4 nM to 862 +/- 103 nM, giving a maximal calcium increase in about 2 min. Batrachotoxin (1 microM) induced an even greater increase in calcium but required a longer time. Gramicidin also induced a large increase in cytoplasmic calcium which was maximal within 0.5 min. To directly test the calcium dependency of phospholipase C, we permeabilized the chick heart cells with saponin and monitored the production of inositol phosphates at different calcium concentrations. Raising the calcium concentration from 3 to 1000 nM increased the accumulation of [3H]inositol phosphates by nearly 4-fold with a half-maximal effect at about 200 nM calcium. The guanine nucleotide guanosine-5'-O-(3-thio)triphosphate (GTP gamma S) also stimulated accumulation of the InsPs and the response to (GTP gamma S) was potentiated by increasing the calcium concentration. The data suggest that the effect of the sodium agents on phosphoinositide hydrolysis results from an elevation of intracellular calcium which increases GTP-dependent phospholipase C activity. Thus, drugs or other conditions that elevate cytoplasmic calcium in heart cells may increase the hydrolysis of membrane phosphoinositides.