Amylase Release from Rat Parotid Gland Slices C.L
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Br. J. P!harmnic. (1981) 73, 517-523 THE EFFECTS OF SUBSTANCE P AND RELATED PEPTIDES ON a- AMYLASE RELEASE FROM RAT PAROTID GLAND SLICES C.L. BROWN & M.R. HANLEY MRC Neurochemical Pharmacology Unit, Medical Research Council Centre, Medical School, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QH 1 The effects of substance P and related peptides on amylase release from rat parotid gland slices have been investigated. 2 Supramaximal concentrations (1 F.M) of substance P caused enhancement of amylase release over the basal level within 1 min; this lasted for at least 40 min at 30°C. 3 Substance P-stimulated amylase release was partially dependent on extracellular calcium and could be inhibited by 50% upon removal of extracellular calcium. 4 Substance P stimulated amylase release in a dose-dependent manner with an ED50 of 18 nm. 5 All C-terminal fragments of substance P were less potent than substance P in stimulating amylase release. The C-terminal hexapeptide of substance P was the minimum structure for potent activity in this system, having 1/3 to 1/8 the potency of substance P. There was a dramatic drop in potency for the C-terminal pentapeptide of substance P or substance P free acid. Physalaemin was more potent than substance P (ED50 = 7 nM), eledoisin was about equipotent with substance P (ED5o = 17 nM), and kassinin less potent than substance P (ED50 = 150 nM). 6 The structure-activity profile observed is very similar to that for stimulation of salivation in vivo, indicating that the same receptors are involved in mediating these responses. 7 All the fragments of substance P tested were capable of eliciting a full amylase release response. This indicates that the apparent partial agonist action of the C-terminal nonapeptide fragment on in vivo salivation is not explicable at the receptor level. Introduction The undecapeptide substance P was originally iden- channel mechanism (Putney, 1977; Gallacher & tified in extracts of horse intestine and was found to Petersen, 1980). cause hypotension and powerful contractions of in- In peripheral tissue bioassays, the potency rank testinal smooth muscle (Von Euler & Gaddum, order of synthetic C-terminal fragments of substance 1931). Substance P was subsequently isolated from P (Bury & Mashford, 1976; Blumberg & Teichberg, the hypothalamus, sequenced and synthesized 1979) or of tachykinins (naturally-occurring sub- (Chang & Leeman, 1970; Chang, Leeman & Niall, stance P-like peptides; Erspamer, Erspamer & Pic- 1971). cinelli, 1980), has been used as a tool to study the One of the most potent actions of substance P in substance P receptor. Experiments on in vivo saliva- peripheral tissues is the stimulation of salivation tion have shown that the minimum sequence for (Leeman & Hammerschlag, 1967). Upon systemic activity is the C-terminal pentapeptide, and all C- injection it can cause up to a 50 fold increase in terminal fragments of substance P have lower agonist salivary flow with a 4 fold increase in amylase release potency than substance P (Hanley, Lee, Jones & per unit volume of saliva (Liang & Cascieri, 1979). Michell, 1980). However, these data also showed an This appears to be a direct action of substance P on interesting anomaly; namely that the C-terminal sub- the glands themselves as it is not blocked in vivo by stance P nonapeptide behaved as a partial agonist atropine, propranolol or phenoxybenzamine and did not elicit a full response, unlike the other (Leeman & Hammerschlag, 1967). Moreover, in C-terminal fragments. vitro studies show several substance P effects on The investigation described here was undertaken salivary gland preparations (Rudich & Butcher, to determine the structural requirements of the sub- 1976; Friedman & Selinger, 1978; Jones & Michell, stance P receptor of rat salivary glands in vitro, using 1978; Gallacher & Petersen, 1980), and point to the the release of a-amylase from parotid slices. In so existence of separate a-adrenoceptor, substance P doing, we found that the apparent partial agonist and muscarinic receptors acting via a common ion activity of the C-terminal nonapeptide is not a true 0007-1188/81/060517-007 $01.00 ) Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1981 518 C.L. BROWN & M.R. HANLEY receptor phenomenon but is rather a complication of internal standards for each batch of tissue. The vials in vivo sialogogue experiments. We also describe the were gassed with 95% 02:5% C02, sealed and incu- characteristics of a-amylase release from parotid bated at 30°C with shaking for 30 min. Preliminary slices to support the use of this preparation as a model studies showed that stimulation of release was grea- of substance P receptor function. ter at 30°C than at 20°C. At the end of the 30 min incubation period, the contents of the vials were Methods transferred into 'Microfuge' tubes which were spun for 1 min at 10,000 gin a Beckman 'Microfuge'. The Preparation of the parotid slices supernatant was taken for a-amylase assay. A gassed (95% 02: 5% C02) Krebs-Ringer bicarbo- Amylase assay nate buffer containing 10mM inosine, 0.4mM adenine and 5 mm 3-hydroxybutyrate was used The supematant was diluted x 4 and 10 ,ul was incu- throughout (Batzri & Selinger, 1973). bated with 0.99 ml of starch solution (0.5 ml of starch For a typical experiment involving 36 incubations, solution in 0.1 M phosphate buffer (pH 7) diluted the parotid salivary glands were removed from three with 0.49 ml distilled water) at room temperature for male Sprague-Dawley rats, which had been anaes- 5 min. The reaction was stopped by addition of 1 ml thetized with chloroform and killed by exsanguina- of an alkaline solution of 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid. tion. After removal, the glands were kept in the The mixture was heated in a boiling water bath for medium at room temperature. 10 min. After cooling, the contents were diluted with The glands were dissected free of lymph nodes, 10 ml of water and the absorbance (1 cm light path) at adipose and connective tissues and cut into small wavelength 546 nm was measured against a blank to pieces about 3 mm2 which were then cross chopped at which 10 ,ul of incubation medium had been added in 600 with a spacing of 0.15 mm on a Mcllwain tissue place of diluted supernatant. For each experiment, chopper. The resulting slices were placed in medium the amylase activity was expressed as maltose equi- (5 ml per pair of parotid glands) containing 0.5 mg/ml valents by comparison with a maltose standard curve. of collagenase, which was gently gassed with One unit of amylase is defined as the amount of 95% 02:5% C02, sealed, and incubated at 30°C for enzyme that causes the formation of 1 mg of maltose 30 min with shaking. The purpose of this treatment in 5 min at 25°C. Owing to between-experiment vari- was to remove the collagen fibres which tend to ation in the magnitude of the response, data were in clump the tissue slices. At the end of this incubation, some instances expressed as a percentage of the the collagenase solution was poured off and the stimulation by a supramaximal concentration of sub- treated slices rinsed three times with medium at stance P (1 I1.M) over the basal a-amylase release. 300C. In vivo salivation Preparation oftissueforcalcium-free incubation The increase in salivary flow provoked by substance A calcium-free medium was prepared by omitting P and other peptides was determined in rats as de- CaCI2 from the normal medium and replacing it on a scribed previously (Hanley et al., 1980). molar basis with MgCl2 and adding EGTA to a final concentration of 1 mm. The slices were prepared as Drugs described above and were then dispersed with a 50 times larger volume of calcium-free medium. The Synthetic substance P, C-terminal fragments of sub- slices were pipetted from the large volume of medium stance P, substance P free acid, eledoisin, when they had settled, rinsed again in calcium-free physalaemin and kassinin were obtained from Penin- medium and pipetted into incubation vials in sula Laboratories. Collagenase was obtained from calcium-free medium containing the various drug Worthington Biochemicals. additions. Incubation oftissue slices Results Volumes of 20 9LI of the suspension of parotid slices Characteristics of response (0.2 mg wet weight) were pipetted into flat-bottomed polypropylene vials containing 470 L1 of the medium Substance P stimulation of amylase release was ap- and 10 I of drug solution. Triplicate experiments parent within 1 min and lasted for at least 40 min were performed for each drug concentration. Tubes (Figure 1). There was an initial steep rise in basal containing no drugs (basal) and tubes containing amylase release and of amylase release stimulated by 1 ,LM substance P (supramaximal) were included as a supramaximal concentration of substance P (1 FM) SUBSTANCE P-STIMULATED PAROTID AMYLASE RELEASE 519 125 which slowed after about 2 min. From 10 to 40 min there was a constant rate of amylase release which was greater in the presence of 1 ,JM substance P than in the absence of drug. These time courses indicate that 30 min is a suitable incubation time to choose for 100 the study of stimulation of amylase release by sub- stance P and related peptides. When carbachol, noradrenaline and substance P were used in supramaximal concentrations, no com- c0 bination of agonists produced a summated amylase of 75 release response (Table 1). The stimulation amyl- 'aC ase release by a supramaximal concentration of car- bachol (500 F±M) was not significantly different from that elicited by 1 ,uM substance P. However, sup- In ramaximal noradrenaline (500 ,uM) produced a sig- nificantly greater stimulation of amylase release than 0Cu 50 a) did either carbachol or substance P.