The involvement of phosphoinositide hydrolysis in the action of oxytocin and vasopressin on the uterus was investigated in gestational myometrium and decidua cells by measuring the production of inositol phosphates. Both peptides stimulated a dose related increase in all three inositol phosphates in myometrium. This may be related to the control of sarcoplasmic Ca++ levels in the myometrium. Oxytocin and vasopressin also stimulated inositol 1-phosphate (IP) production in decidua cells. The hydrolysis of phosphatidylinositol by decidua homogenates exhibited a precursor-product relationship for diacylglycerol and arachidonic acid accumulation. Hence both peptides may mobilise free arachidonic acid, for prostaglandin biosynthesis, from decidua cell phosphoinositides by the sequential action of phospholipase C and diacylglycerol lipase.

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Vasopressin and oxytocin both stimulated inositol phosphate accumulation in isolated uterine decidua cells. Pretreatment of cells with the phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA) prevented this agonist-induced phosphoinositide hydrolysis. TPA (0.1 microM) alone had no effect on basal inositol phosphate accumulation, but stimulated phosphoinositide deacylation, as indicated by a 2-fold increase in lysophosphatidylinositol and glycerophosphoinositol. TPA also stimulated a dose-related release of arachidonic acid from decidua-cell phospholipid [phosphatidylcholine (PC) much greater than phosphatidylinositol (PI) greater than phosphatidylethanolamine]. The phorbol ester 4 beta-phorbol 12,13-diacetate (PDA) at 0.1 microM had no effect on arachidonic acid mobilization. The TPA-stimulated increase in arachidonic acid release was apparent by 2 1/2 min (116% of control), maximal after 20 min (283% of control), and remained around this value (306% of control) after 120 min incubation. TPA also stimulated significant increases in 1,2-diacylglycerol and monoacylglycerol production at 20 and 120 min. Although the temporal increases in arachidonic acid and monoacylglycerol accumulation in the presence of TPA continued up to 120 min, that of 1,2-diacylglycerol declined after 20 min. In decidua cells prelabelled with [3H]choline, TPA also stimulated a significant decrease in radiolabelled PC after 20 min, which was accompanied by an increased release of water-soluble metabolites into the medium. Most of the radioactivity in the extracellular pool was associated with choline, whereas the main cellular water-soluble metabolite was phosphorylcholine. TPA stimulated extracellular choline accumulation to 183% and 351% of basal release after 5 and 20 min respectively and cellular phosphorylcholine production to 136% of basal values after 20 min. These results are consistent with a model in which protein kinase C activation by TPA leads to arachidonic acid mobilization from decidua-cell phospholipid by a mechanism involving phospholipase A-mediated PI hydrolysis and phospholipase C-mediated PC hydrolysis, coupled with further hydrolysis of the 1,2-diacylglycerol product.