Histamine-stimulated phosphorylation of gastric parietal cell proteins

Parietal cells from rabbit gastric mucosa respond to histamine with increased HCl secretion. Histamine also increases cAMP and activates cAMP-dependent protein kinase(s) in these cells. cAMP analogues and forskolin appear to mimic these effects. More recently histamine and forskolin but not cAMP-stimulated increases in [Ca2+]/sub i/ have been detected in parietal cells enriched to 98 +/- 2% (n=10) purity using a combined Nycodenz density gradient/centrifugal elutriation technique. In the present experiments parietal cells were loaded with 32P to label ATP pools then stimulated with histamine or chlorophenylthio-cAMP plus the H2 receptor antagonist, cimetidine. Total cell extracts were separated via 2D-gel electrophoresis and analyzed with a Masscomp computer and PDQuest software. Results indicate that histamine stimulates phosphorylation of at least two proteins with molecular weights 49 and 33 kDa and respective pI's of 6.4 and 6.0. Changes in phosphorylation are detected within 1 min of stimulation and remain elevated for at least 15 min. No change in specific activity of samples was detected during this time. A third protein also showed increased phosphorylation but the response appeared more transient. They conclude that histamine increases phosphorylation of several parietal cell proteins via a cAMP-dependent mechanism. The relationship between changes in phosphorylation and onset of HCl secretion remains to be determined