Heterogeneity of phospholipase D activation by angiotensin II, lysophosphatidylcholine, and insulin in human endothelial cells.

Human endothelial cells (ECs) are heterogeneous, although little is known regarding regional variations in their regulation of vascular tone. This study compares activation of the key enzyme phospholipase D (PLD) by the vasoconstrictors angiotensin II (AII) and lysophosphatidylcholine (lysoPC), and the vasodilator insulin, in primary human microvascular endothelial cells (HMVECs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). PLD activity was measured by [(3)H]phosphatidylethanol production in cells labeled with [(3)H]myristic acid. AII maximally activated PLD in both cell types at 1 nmol/L. AII also significantly activated PLD at 100 pmol/L in HUVECS but not in HMVECs. LysoPC dose dependently activated PLD in both cell types, although HUVECs were more sensitive to the agonist; being significantly activated by 10 micromol/L lysoPC and displaying an approximately sevenfold greater PLD activity with 20 micromol/L lysoPC compared to HMVECs. Insulin significantly increased PLD activity in both cell types with maximum activation at 1 nmol/L. Again differential sensitivity was observed; 10 nmol/L insulin significantly stimulated PLD in HUVECs but not HMVECs. Differential sensitivity of PLD activation in human endothelial cells from different vascular beds in response to vasoactive agents was observed, with the HUVECs displaying greater sensitivity to vasoconstricting agents than HMVECs.

Absorption of the cholic acid-conjugated peptide hormone cholylsecretin from the rat ileum in vivo.

AIMS: Previously, we demonstrated that gastrin peptides as long as 34 amino acids were absorbed from the ileum of rat after conjugation to the C24 position of cholic acid and that these peptides retained full biological activity. As absorption was specific to the ileum, it was inferred that the conjugated hormone was taken up by the bile salt transporters. We have now extended these experiments to a member of a different family of hormones, viz. secretin, a 27-amino acid hormone that stimulates serous secretions from the exocrine pancreas. METHODS: After conjugation to cholic acid, the degree of cholylsecretin absorption from the ileum of anaesthetized rats was assessed from the increase in pancreatic secretions. RESULTS: A complication to the study was that intra-ileal infusion of native secretin caused a transient increase in the levels of pancreatic secretions. This was in contrast to the effects of intra-ileal infusion of cholylsecretin which did not cause this transient increase but, instead, gave rise to a delayed increase in pancreatic secretions which was sustained over several hours during which cholylsecretin was detected in plasma in high concentration by mass spectrometry. The pancreatic response to cholylsecretin was abolished by co-infusion of 50 mm taurocholate, employed to compete with the bile salt transporters, although a transient increase in pancreatic secretions similar to that caused by secretin was now generated. This was shown to arise from an action of taurocholate per se causing the release of endogenous secretin which is present in rat ileum. CONCLUSIONS: We, therefore, concluded that cholylsecretin had been absorbed from the rat ileum by uptake by bile salt transporters.