Volume 17, Number 21,
Issue of November 1, 1997
pp. 8391-8401
Copyright ©1997 Society for Neuroscience
Bradykinin-Induced Collapse of Rat Pheochromocytoma (PC12) Cell
Growth Cones: A Role for Tyrosine Kinase Activity
Received Aug. 8, 1997; accepted Aug. 20, 1997.
Benno Schindelholz and
Bernhard F. X. Reber
Department of Pharmacology, University of Bern, CH-3010 Bern,
Switzerland
Pathfinding of growing nerve processes is guided by extracellular
guidance cues. Here we report growth cone collapse of
NGF-differentiated PC12 cells in culture evoked by the neuropeptide
bradykinin. The growth cone response is mediated by B2
bradykinin receptors. Two different effects were distinguished. (1)
Disappearance of filopodia occurred together with a loss of fibrillar
actin (F-actin) in the growth cones at picomolar concentrations of
bradykinin. The relative F-actin content was measured by means of
rhodamine-phalloidin fluorescence using confocal microscopy. (2)
Bradykinin-induced Ca2+ release and retraction of
the neurite occurred at nanomolar concentrations. Ca2+ responses at single growth cones were measured
using a 1:1 mixture of fura-red and fluo-3
Ca2+-sensitive dyes. The
[Ca2+]i rise is not a prerequisite for
the observed effects, because F-actin loss and retraction occurred
during inhibition of Ca2+ responses. In contrast,
inhibition by genistein pointed to a tyrosine kinase activity in the
bradykinin-evoked cellular events. Subsequent analysis of
phosphotyrosine proteins revealed that bradykinin stimulated tyrosine
phosphorylation of the cytoskeleton-associated protein paxillin and the
nonreceptor protein tyrosine kinase pp60c-src.
Paxillin and pp60c-src co-precipitated after
bradykinin treatment. Immunostaining experiments showed punctate
distribution of paxillin along PC12 neurites and in growth cones. Taken
together, our data suggest that pp60c-src and
paxillin are putative components of the intracellular signaling pathway
of bradykinin-mediated neurite retraction and provide evidence for a
crosstalk between G-protein- and tyrosine kinase-dependent pathways in
these cellular events.
Key words:
pheochromocytoma cell;
growth cone collapse;
F-actin;
bradykinin;
calcium;
pp60c-src;
tyrosine kinase;
paxillin