Detection of phosphatidylcholine-specific phospholipase C in NIH-3T3 fibroblasts and their H-ras transformants: NMR and immunochemical studies

Although evidence supports constitutive activation of phosphatidylcholine specific phospholipase C (PC-plc) in ras-transformed fibroblasts, no studies have been devoted to measure the basal activity levels of this enzyme, its molecular characteristics and subcellular localization. This paper reports for the first time measurements of the activity of different enzymes responsible for PC hydrolysis (PC-plc; phospholipases A(2) (pla(2)) and A(1) (pla(1))) in homogenates of murine NIH-3T3 fibroblasts (3T3) and their transformants obtained by human H-ras transfection (3T3(ras)). To this end P-31 NMR analyses were carried out on total cell homogenates, incubated in the presence of mixed diheptanoylphosphatidylcholine: sphingomyelin (DHPC:SM) unilamellar vesicles (SLUV), in which DHPC acts as a suitable substrate for water-soluble lipolytic enzymes. The basal PC-plc activity levels (0.66 +/- 0.14 and 0.38 +/- 0.10 nmol/10(6) cells . hour in 3T3 and 3T3(ras) fibroblasts, respectively), were substantially higher (over 30-50x) than those reported in the literature for normal mammalian cells (dog heart myocytes). Moreover the PC-plc activity was about 15-30 times lower than the overall PC deacylation activity in both clones. The use of high titer polyclonal antibodies, raised in a rabbit against bacterial PC-plc, allowed identification of one cross-reactive mammalian PC-plc component (M(r) 66 kD) in cell lysates of both 3T3 and 3T3(ras) fibroblasts, and detection, by indirect immunofluorescence, of its subcellular localization. In control 3T3 fibroblasts (in the late log-phase of growth) the enzyme was exclusively located in the cytosol, while in H-ras transformed cells it was massively exposed on the external side of the membrane. This new finding strongly suggests that the oncogenic product p21(ras) is able to induce (or mediate) translocation of PC-plc across the plasma membrane of ras transformed cells with possible implications not only on cell biochemistry (enhancement of PC-plc activity and consequent production of intra- and extracellular PCho and accumulation of neutral lipids) bur also on cell-cell interaction mechanisms which facilitate tumour invasion and metastasis of oncogene-transformed cells.