Stimulation by endothelin‐1 of mitogen‐activated protein kinases and DNA synthesis in bovine tracheal smooth muscle cells

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Abstract
1 In cultures of bovine tracheal smooth muscle cells, platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF), bradykinin (BK) and endothelin-1 (ET-1) stimulated the tyrosine phosphorylation and activation of both pp42 and pp44 kDa forms of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase. 2 Both ET-1 and PDGF stimulated a sustained activation of MAP kinase whilst the response to BK was transient. 3 Activation of MAP kinase occurred in a concentration-dependent manner (EC50 values: ET-1, 2.3±1.3 nM; BK, 8.7±4.1 nM, PDGF, 9.7±3.2 ng ml−1). 4 Pretreatment with the protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor Ro-318220, significantly reduced ET-1 activation of MAP kinase at 2 and 5 min but enhanced MAP kinase activation at 60 min. 5 Following chronic phorbol ester pretreatment, BK-stimulated activation of MAP kinase was abolished whilst the responses to PDGF and ET-1 were only partly reduced (80 and 45% inhibition respectively). 6 Pretreatment with pertussis toxin reduced ET-1 stimulated activation of MAP kinase particularly at later times (60 min), but left the responses to both PDGF and BK unaffected. 7 ET-1 also stimulated a 3 fold increase in [3H]-thymidine incorporation which was abolished by pertussis toxin pretreatment. In contrast, PDGF stimulated a 131 fold increase in [3H]-thymidine incorporation which was not affected by pertussis toxin. 8 These results suggest that a pertussis toxin-sensitive activation of MAP kinase may play an important role in ET-1-stimulated DNA synthesis but that activation of MAP kinase alone is not sufficient to induce the magnitude of DNA synthesis observed in response to PDGF.