Protein kinase C, but not tyrosine kinases or Ras, plays a critical role in angiotensin II-induced activation of Raf-1 kinase and extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases in cardiac myocytes.

Angiotensin II (AngII) induces cardiac hypertrophy through activating a variety of protein kinases. In this study, to understand how cardiac hypertrophy develops, we examined AngII-evoked signal transduction pathways leading to the activation of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases (ERKs), which are reportedly critical for the development of cardiac hypertrophy, in cultured cardiac myocytes isolated from neonatal rats. Inhibition of protein kinase C (PKC) with calphostin C or down-regulation of PKC by pretreatment with a phorbol ester for 24 h abolished AngII-induced activation of Raf-1 and ERKs, and addition of a phorbol ester conversely induced a marked increase in the activities of Raf-1 and ERKs. Pretreatment with two chemically and mechanistically dissimilar tyrosine kinase inhibitors, genistein and tyrphostin, did not attenuate AngII-induced activation of ERKs. In contrast, genistein strongly blocked insulin-induced ERK activation in cardiac myocytes. Although pretreatment with manumycin, a Ras farnesyltransferase inhibitor, or overexpression of a dominant-negative mutant of Ras inhibited insulin-induced ERK activation, neither affected AngII-induced activation of ERKs. Overexpression of a dominant-negative mutant of Raf-1 completely suppressed ERK2 activation by AngII, endothelin-1, and insulin. These results suggest that PKC and Raf-1, but not tyrosine kinases or Ras, are critical for AngII-induced activation of ERKs in cardiac myocytes.