Correlation of receptor sequestration with sustained diacylglycerol accumulation in angiotensin II-stimulated cultured vascular smooth muscle cells

Angiotensin II stimulates sequential phospholipase C-mediated hydrolysis of initially the polyphosphoinositides and subsequently phosphatidylinositol (PI) in cultured rat aortic smooth muscle cells resulting in biphasic, sustained formation of diacylglycerol (DG). The mechanisms underlying this delayed induction of sustained DG accumulation are unknown but may be related to cellular events including processing of the angiotensin II receptor-ligand complex. In the present study, we characterized the kinetics of angiotensin II receptor sequestration and studied the effects of interventions which interfere with receptor processing on the pattern of angiotensin II-induced DG formation and phosphoinositide hydrolysis. Conversion of the angiotensin II receptor to an acid-resistant form was temperature-dependent, with half-times of 1.5 min at 37 degrees C and 7 min at 19 degrees C. Reducing the temperature to 25 or 19 degrees C caused a marked temporal separation between the two phases of DG accumulation. There was a close temporal correlation between the effect of temperature on receptor sequestration and on sustained DG accumulation. Furthermore, phenylarsine oxide (5 min, 10 microM), which inhibited angiotensin II receptor internalization, also selectively inhibited the sustained phase of DG accumulation (81 +/- 6% inhibition). Monensin and chloroquine, which interfere with receptor processing through the lysosomal-degradative pathway, had no effect on angiotensin II-induced DG formation in these cells, suggesting that the processing event important to hormonally induced sustained DG accumulation occurs early in the internalization pathway, probably at the level of the plasma membrane. Moreover, the acid-resistant state of the angiotensin II receptor-ligand complex retained its ability to signal, since removal of the surface signal by competitive antagonism with Sar1-Ile8-angiotensin II or acid-wash only slowly reversed accumulation of DG and depression of total cell calcium. These experiments support our previous observation that the initial and sustained phases of angiotensin II-induced diacylglycerol formation in vascular smooth muscle are differentially controlled and suggest that an early event in the cellular processing of the angiotensin II-receptor complex is essential to maintenance of DG accumulation.