Epidermal growth factor induces the production of biologically distinguishable diglyceride species from phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylcholine via the independent activation of type C and type D phospholipases.

An early response to epidermal growth factor in A431 cells is the generation of diglyceride, a physiological activator of protein kinase C. By differentially prelabeling cellular phospholipids with [3H]arachidonate and [3H]myristate, which are incorporated primarily into phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylcholine, respectively, we have found that epidermal growth factor induces an increase in diglyceride levels from both phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylcholine via distinct mechanisms and kinetics. The epidermal growth factor-induced increase in phosphatidylinositol-derived diglyceride was transient and peaked at 5 min. As diglyceride levels dropped, there was a corresponding increase in phosphatidic acid, suggesting that the diglyceride is efficiently converted to phosphatidic acid by a diglyceride kinase. In contrast, epidermal growth factor-induced increases in phosphatidylcholine-derived diglyceride peaked at 30 min and remained elevated for greater than 2 h. The epidermal growth factor-induced increases in phosphatidic acid detected in [3H]myristate-prelabeled cells paralleled the increase in diglyceride, suggesting that the phosphatidylcholine-derived diglyceride is produced from phosphatidic acid via a phosphatidic acid phosphatase. Consistent with this hypothesis, epidermal growth factor also induced a protein kinase C-independent phospholipase D activity that was specific for phosphatidylcholine. These data suggest that epidermal growth factor induces diglyceride production from phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylcholine via two distinct mechanisms: a rapid and transient induction of diglyceride that likely involves phospholipase c-gamma-mediated hydrolysis of phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate and a slower, more sustained induction of diglyceride via a phospholipase D-mediated hydrolysis of phosphatidylcholine to produce phosphatidic acid, which is then converted to diglyceride by a phosphatidic acid phosphatase.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)