Redistribution of cPLA(2) in rat renal tubular cell cultures in response to PCBs.

The influence of different polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) upon the cytosolic phospholipase A(2) (cPLA(2)) redistribution to the particulate fraction has been investigated in rat renal proximal tubule culture cells. Treatment with Aroclor 1248 increased PLA(2) activity in the particulate fraction in a concentration-dependent manner using two radioactive substrates. However, the activity of PLA(2) in the cytosolic fraction decreased. This work also shows that 2,2',4,4',5,5'-hexachlorobiphenyl (HCB) (a di-ortho-substituted nonplanar congener) can increase the activity of PLA(2) in the particulate fraction and decrease the enzyme activity in the cytosolic fraction. The exposure of cell cultures to 3,3',4,4'-tetrachlorobiphenyl (TCB) (a non-ortho-subtituted planar congener) does not alter PLA(2) activity. These results suggest that PCBs, depending on their planar or nonplanar structures, cause a translocation of the enzyme from the cytosol to membranes. To evaluate this possibility, the contents of immunoreactive cPLA(2) were examined by immunoblot analysis in the high-speed supernatant and the particulate fraction of treated cell cultures. The increases/decreases in the amounts of cPLA(2) protein agree with the increases/decreases of PLA(2) activity previously cited. These data demonstrate that the PCB-stimulated redistribution of cPLA(2) to membranes is associated, at least in part, with the changes detected in the activity of the enzyme.

Different molecular capacity in the induction of apoptosis by polychlorinated biphenyl congeners in rat renal tubular cell cultures.

The effects of a commercial polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) mixture (Aroclor 1248) and two individual PCB congeners were evaluated on rat renal proximal tubule culture cell viability and internucleosomal DNA fragmentation (DNA ladder) characteristic of apoptosis. Treatment with Aroclor 1248 caused the loss of cell viability and promoted apoptosis in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. The two PCB congeners assessed can also induce apoptosis. However, the extent of apoptosis generated was greater for the non-ortho-substituted planar congener (3,3',4,4-tetrachlorobiphenyl) than for the di-ortho-substituted nonplanar congener (2,2',4,4',5,5'-hexachlorobiphenyl). This correlated with the loss of cell viability since the planar compound is much more cytotoxic. The results suggest a different molecular mechanism in the induction of apoptosis by planar or nonplanar PCB congeners.

Selective fatty acid release from intracellular phospholipids caused by PCBs in rat renal tubular cell cultures.

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of different polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) upon the release of oleic and palmitic acid from the intracellular lipids, which were previously labeled with [3H]oleic or [3H]palmitic acid, respectively. Studies have been realized with Aroclor 1248 (a commercial PCB mixture with 48% chlorine by weight), and two pure PCB congeners: 3,3',4, 4'-tetrachlorobiphenyl (a non-ortho-substituted planar congener) and 2,2',4,4',5,5'-hexachlorobiphenyl (a di-ortho-substituted nonplanar congener). The treatment of cells with Aroclor 1248 increased [3H]oleic acid release in a concentration-dependent manner. Our results showed that only the di-ortho-substituted congener which prefers a nonplanar configuration stimulated the release of [3H]oleic acid from the intracellular phospholipids to the culture medium, while the exposure of cell cultures to the chosen non-ortho-substituted coplanar congener did not alter the release of [3H]oleic acid to the culture medium. Finally, none of the PCBs studied could increase the release of [3H]palmitic acid from the intracellular stores significantly. The possibility that these differential alterations in the fatty acid release affect cell function during PCB exposure should therefore be postulated.

Hexachlorocyclohexanes affect the arachidonic acid release from phosphatidylinositol but not from other phospholipid classes in tubular cell cultures.

Gamma- and delta-isomers of hexachlorocyclohexane caused marked decreases in the levels of radioactive phospholipids, and increases in the levels of [3H]arachidonate incorporated into free fatty acids in rat renal tubular cells. The increased radioactivity of free fatty acids arises from the decrease of [3H]arachidonate incorporated into phosphatidylinositol, but not into phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylserine or phosphatidylethanolamine. This fact suggests that phosphatidylinositol can be broken down to the fatty acid from the sn-2 position and lysophospholipid by a phospholipase activity increased by hexachlorocyclohexanes. The observed specific toxicant action could be achieved in two ways: (a) operating upon a specific phospholipase A2 that acts on phosphatidylinositol, but not on other phospholipids as substrates and/or (b) involving substrate-phospholipase A2 interactions. Interestingly, the observed effect of the delta-isomer was more pronounced than that of the gamma-one.

Increased intracellular glycerophosphoinositol and arachidonic acid are biochemical markers for lindane toxicity.

Lindane stimulates the release of both glycerophosphoinositol and arachidonic acid from phospholipids in rat renal proximal tubular cell cultures. When lindane was added to the culture medium, a correlation between the time-course profiles of glycerophosphoinositol and arachidonate release was found. This suggests a pathway in which phosphatidylinositol is not directly broken down by phospholipase C, but can instead be broken down to glycerophosphoinositol and arachidonic acid by phospholipase A enzymes. Therefore, a mechanism of action of lindane is through its effect on glycerophosphoinositol and arachidonic acid metabolism.

Role of lindane in membranes. Effects on membrane fluidity and activity of membrane-bound proteins.

The influence of lindane (gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane) on fluidity of plasma membranes from rat renal cortical tubules has been investigated. Preincubation with lindane increased membrane fluidity. This effect was accompanied by (i) a decrease in the transport of glucose with regard to the controls and (ii) an inhibition of the beta-adrenergic stimulatory activity upon cyclic AMP accumulation. However, a significant decrease of the membrane fluidity was found when rats were injected with lindane for 12 days. The injection of lindane exerted the opposite effect on the membrane proteins, the glucose transporter and the beta-adrenergic receptor, enhancing the glucose uptake and increasing the isoproterenol-stimulated cycle AMP accumulation. A possible explanation of the difference could involve a resistance to membrane disordering by lindane through a regulatory mechanism that would balance the activity of many lindane-sensitive proteins in insecticide-injected rats.

Lindane affects phosphoinositide turnover through a different mechanism of the phosphatidylinositol synthesis inhibition in rat renal proximal tubule cell culture.

The ability of lindane to change the metabolism of inositol phospholipids was investigated using rat renal proximal tubular cell cultures labelled with [3H]inositol. Lindane addition to the culture medium caused labelling of inositol trisphosphate, inositol bisphosphate and inositol tetrakisphosphate to decrease and that of the inositol monophosphate pool to increase. A depletion of radioactivity in phosphatidylinositols was also observed after lindane addition. Most strikingly, the addition of lindane considerably increased the levels of glycerophosphoinositol in a dose-dependent manner. The effect of lindane follows a different pattern from that of bradykinin, and it is suggested to act by stimulating phospholipase A activity(ies).

Alteration of protein kinase C activity in diabetic rat prostate.

Protein kinase C activity is present in rat prostatic epithelial cells in both cytosolic and membrane subcellular fractions. Partial purification by ion-exchange chromatography and characterization of cofactor requirements showed its behavior as a classical Ca(2+)- and phospholipid-dependent enzyme activated by 1,2-diacylglycerol (or by mimicking agents such as tumor-promoting phorbol esters). Streptozotocin-induced diabetes resulted in an increase of the membrane/cytosolic enzyme ratio suggesting a redistribution of protein kinase C from the cytosolic to the membrane fraction (an index of enzyme activation) that could be reversed toward control conditions by insulin treatment. Differences observed in cofactor requirements for maximal enzyme activation argue for a some distinct expression of protein kinase C isozymes in control and diabetic conditions. These results are a new aspect of the complex set of alterations exhibited by the diabetic prostate in the signal transduction mechanisms that mediate cell functions and proliferation in this gland which could be related to the prostate atrophy and impaired fertility characteristic of this disease.

Lindane decreases forskolin-stimulated cyclic AMP accumulation but does not modify Gs in rat enterocytes.

Treatment of isolated rat enterocytes with the halogenated insecticide lindane (the gamma-isomer of hexachlorocyclohexane, HCCH) did not modify the general membrane fluidity (as estimated by a fluorescence polarization technique) nor the guanine nucleotide binding regulatory protein Gs (as studied by both ADP-ribosylation of its alpha subunit by cholera toxin and Gpp[NH]p stimulation of membrane adenylate cyclase activity). However, lindane decreased in a dose-dependent manner the effect of the diterpene forskolin on direct activation of the adenylate cyclase catalytic subunit. After 5 min of cell treatment with 0.5 mM lindane, the maximal stimulatory effect of forskolin (at 100 microM) decreased by about 50%. There was a certain degree of specificity since delta-HCCH was indeed more potent, whereas dieldrin and endrin (non-lindane related halogenated compounds) behaved as lindane, and alpha- and beta-HCCH were poorly efficient on the inhibition of forskolin stimulation of adenylate cyclase activity. A similar effect of lindane was observed on receptor-stimulated cyclic AMP accumulation by using vasoactive intestinal peptide instead of forskolin. The results on a non-receptor mediated effect of lindane on the adenylate cyclase catalytic subunit itself could be related to: (i) alterations of membrane microdomains surrounding this and other integral proteins which would result in modifications of their activities; and/or (ii) a reciprocal relation between the two main routes of signal transduction so that the activation of protein kinase C (or other Ca(2+)-dependent protein kinases) by lindane would lead to phosphorylation of the adenylate cyclase catalytic subunit.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Lindane-induced modifications to membrane lipid structure: effect on membrane fluidity after subchronic treatment.

Chronic lindane intoxication by injecting subcutaneously the toxicant, resulted in an altered lipid pattern in rat ventral prostate membranes. An increase of membrane fluidity was also observed using a fluorescence polarization technique. When in vitro experiments were carried out with both treated and untreated rats, an interesting lack of parallelism was found, which could indicate the development of a resistance to membrane disordering by lindane. The observed changes in cholesterol and phospholipid composition are also consistent with the hypothesis that lindane perturbs the lipid matrix of membranes, possibly inducing complex compensatory changes in the membrane lipid composition.

Effects of lindane on the accumulation of cyclic AMP, induced by vasoactive intestinal peptide, in isolated rat prostatic epithelial cells.

Lindane pretreatment of isolated rat prostatic epithelial cells resulted in a time- and dose-dependent impairment of the stimulation of cyclic AMP levels by vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP); the optimal conditions for producing this impairment were found to be 5 min of cell exposure to 0.2 mm-lindane at 25 degrees C. The inhibitory effect of the insecticide was related to a decrease in VIP efficiency since the maximal cyclic AMP response (at 100 nm VIP) was about 50% of that in control cells. VIP potency was unaffected since the half-maximal cyclic AMP response was elicited at about 3 nm VIP in both the control and lindane-pretreated cells. The results indicate that lindane interferes with the cyclic AMP system in prostatic epithelium, and this could be a consequence of some interaction in the prostate gland between the two main systems for signal transduction (i.e. adenylate cyclase and phosphatidylinositol/Ca(2+)/protein kinase C).

Effects of lindane on fluidity and lipid composition in rat renal cortex membranes.

The influence of lindane upon dynamic properties of plasma membranes from rat renal cortex has been investigated using a fluorescence polarization technique. Preincubation with lindane increased membrane fluidity in a manner that is dose-dependent. This increase was higher in brush border membranes than in basolateral membranes. However, a significant decrease of the membrane fluidity was found in brush border membranes when rats were injected with lindane for 12 days. A possible solution to this difference could involve a resistance to membrane disordering by lindane through a regulatory mechanism that would balance the amount of cholesterol and phospholipid classes in the renal cortex membranes of lindane-injected rats.

Influence of lindane on the fluidity of the rat ventral prostate membranes.

The influence of lindane upon the dynamic properties of plasma membranes from rat ventral prostate has been investigated using a fluorescence polarization technique. Preincubation with lindane decreased the fluorescence polarization in a dose dependent manner. This effect, which is associated with an increased membrane fluidity, occurred in a very short period of time. Lindane also provoked a number of changes in lipid biosynthesis from acetate in the membrane. Less [1-14C]acetate was incorporated into cholesterol and more into phospholipids when this liposoluble toxicant was added to the preincubation medium. However, not all phospholipid classes were equally increased, because while the rate of acetate incorporation was greater into choline glycerophospholipids than into ethanolamine glycerophospholipids, both were higher than the rates of acetate incorporation into serine glycerophospholipids and sphingomyelin.

Effect of lindane upon the beta-adrenergic stimulation of cyclic AMP accumulation in rat renal cortical tubules caused by alterations in membrane fluidity.

The influence of lindane (gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane) on fluidity and lipid composition in rat renal cortical tubules has been investigated. Lindane increased membrane fluidity as measured by a fluorescence polarization technique using the probe diphenylhexatriene. This effect was dose-dependent and was accompanied by a 70% inhibition of the beta-adrenergic stimulatory activity upon cyclic AMP accumulation after 30 min of preincubation with lindane at 25 degrees C. Experiments with increasing concentrations of isoproterenol indicated that the efficacy, but not the potency, of the beta-adrenergic effect upon cyclic AMP accumulation was affected by lindane. Lindane toxicity could also be associated with variations in the incorporation of acetate into various lipid classes. Lindane increased acetate incorporation into phospholipids and decreased that into cholesterol.

Beta-adrenergic stimulation of cyclic AMP accumulation in rat prostatic epithelial cells during sexual maturation.

The effect of age, castration and androgen-replacement therapy upon the stimulatory activity of the beta-adrenergic agonist isoproterenol on cyclic AMP accumulation was determined in rat prostatic epithelial cells. The potency of isoproterenol was similar in all the experimental models (ED50 = 0.3-0.4 microM). Mature animals showed a lower efficiency of isoproterenol than that of pubertal rats. Pubertal rats (which are absolutely dependent on androgens) exhibited an increase of the responsiveness of prostatic cyclic AMP to isoproterenol after castration, normalization being reached after subsequent testosterone treatment; this feature could be reproduced by in vitro incubation of the corresponding cells with testosterone or dihydrotestosterone. Mature rats (which are relatively dependent on androgens) maintained the efficiency of isoproterenol upon prostatic cyclic AMP after castration, and testosterone therapy elicited an increase of this activity. The present study contributes original observations mainly in the puberty period and supports the importance of the androgenic status not only for direct actions of androgens but also for the regulation of many other hormone/neurotransmitter/growth factor receptor-effector systems.

Effects of in vivo and in vitro lindane treatment on rat ventral prostate lipids.

The rat ventral prostate accumulated lindane (gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane) (0.59 +/- 0.07 ppm) when this liposoluble toxicant was injected subcutaneously at a concentration of 1 mg of 100 g body weight for 12 days. Total lipids and phospholipids (especially phosphatidylcholine) amounts were augmented in treated rats. Lindane had no significant influence upon cholesterol mass content in the ventral prostate. Using [1-14C]acetate as radioactive precursor, it was possible to conclude that the mass lipid variations caused by lindane treatment were due, at least in part, to a modification of the endogenous biosynthesis of these lipids. No changes were found in the acetate oxidation to CO2 when control rats and lindane-treated rats were compared.

Influence of castration and testosterone treatment on the vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor/effector system in rat prostatic epithelial cells.

The interaction of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) with prostatic epithelial cells was studied after castration and testosterone replacement in pubertal and mature rats. The number of VIP receptors (but not the affinity) decreased 2 days after castration and returned to normal when subsequently treated with testosterone for 4 days. However, the stimulatory effect of VIP upon cyclic AMP accumulation was unaffected by the androgen withdrawal elicited by the surgical procedure. The results suggest the importance of androgens in the biosynthesis of VIP receptors and also in their coupling to adenylate cyclase by affecting the membrane fluidity.

Androgenic control of acetate incorporation into membrane lipids in rat ventral prostate.

The rat ventral prostate plasma membranes incorporated acetate into total lipids, which was a time-dependent process. The acetate incorporation was mainly into phospholipids followed by cholesterol. The main phospholipids subclasses were choline and ethanolamine glycerophospholipids. Castration modified drastically both cholesterol-phospholipids and choline glycerophospholipids-ethanolamine glycerophospholipids ratios. These effects of castration were reversed after testosterone treatment, which could suggest an influence of this hormone in the modification of some lipid classes into cellular membrane.

Partitioning behaviour of rat bone marrow cells in aqueous two-phase systems. Dependence of cell partition on the interfacial tension and electrical potential difference between the phases.

The partitioning of heterogeneous cell populations of rat bone marrow, in comparison with that of homogeneous populations of erythrocytes, has been studied in aqueous two-phase systems containing increasing concentrations of dextran-poly-(ethylene glycol) (to increase the interfacial tension) and/or decreasing phosphate concentrations (to decrease both the electrical potential difference between the phases and the interfacial tension). At any polymer and/or phosphate concentration tested the partition is lower for bone marrow cells, reflecting their lower surface charge and hydrophobicity.

In vitro age-dependent incorporation of [1-14C]acetate into lipid subclasses in rat ventral prostate.

The [1-14C]acetate incorporation into different lipid subclasses by the rat prostate gland was lineal between 20 and 80 mg of wet tissue. The in vitro [1-14C]acetate incorporation into lipid subclasses was a development-dependent process. The highest values of [1-14C]acetate incorporation into triacylglycerols, free cholesterol and esterified cholesterol were observed at puberty, but radioactivity incorporation into phospholipids was similar in both prepuberty and puberty, then decreasing in maturity. The relationship between triacylglycerols, free cholesterol and esterified cholesterol with respect to total lipids was about 12, 10 and 3.5%, respectively, values being maintained during the animal development. The in vitro [1-14C]acetate incorporation into lipid subclasses in castrated rats decreased considerably as compared with normal rats.