Degradation of poly-phosphoinositides in brain subcellular membranes in response to decapitation insult

Although it has been well demonstrated that decapitation insult results in a rapid breakdown of the poly-phosphoinositides in brain, the subcellular site(s) for this event has not been examined in detail. Using rats that were injected intracerebrally with ³²Pi to label the brain membrane phosphoinositides, decapitation treatment (0.5, 1.5 and 3.5 min) resulted in a decrease in labeled phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphates and phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphates in almost all subcellular fractions except myelin. However, the fractions exhibiting the most changes were synaptic vesicles, synaptic plasma membranes and the non-synaptic plasma membranes. The rapid response of poly-phosphoinositides in synaptic vesicles towards decapitation insult demonstrated a role of these phospholipids in vesicular membrane function. Besides the decrease in labeled phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphates which is attributed mainly to the action of phospholipase C, decapitation insult also elicited a near parallel decrease in labeled phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphates, and this was accompanied by a concomitant increase in labeled phosphatidylinositol which was observed mainly in the synaptic vesicles and synaptic plasma membrane fractions. This latter event suggests that besides degradation of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphates by phospholipase C, some phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphates may have been degraded through the phosphomonoesterase pathway.