In previous studies it has been shown that both bradykinin and histamine increase the formation of 3H-labeled inositol phosphates in adrenal chromaffin cells prelabelled with [3H]inositol and that both these agonists stimulate release of catecholamines by a mechanism dependent on extracellular calcium. Here, we have used mass assays of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate [Ins(1,4,5)P3] and inositol 1,3,4,5-tetrakisphosphate [Ins(1,3,4,5)P4] to investigate changes in levels of these two candidates as second messengers in response to stimulation with bradykinin and histamine. Bradykinin increased the mass of Ins(1,3,4,5)P4 despite the failure in earlier studies with [3H]inositol-labelled cells to observe a bradykinin-mediated increase in content of [3H]InsP4. Bradykinin elicited a very rapid increase in level of Ins(1,4,5)P3, which was maximal at 5-10 s and then rapidly decreased to a small but sustained elevation at 2 min. The bradykinin-elicited Ins(1,3,4,5)P4 response increased to a maximum at 30-60 s and at 2 min was still elevated severalfold above basal levels. Histamine, which produced a larger overall total inositol phosphate response in [3H]inositol-loaded cells, produced significantly smaller Ins(1,4,5)P3 and Ins(1,3,4,5)P4 responses compared with bradykinin. The bradykinin stimulation of Ins(1,4,5)P3 accumulation was partially dependent on a high (1.8 mM) extracellular Ca2+ concentration, whereas the Ins(1,3,4,5)P4 response was almost completely lost when the extracellular Ca2+ concentration was reduced to 100 nM. Changes in the inositol polyphosphate second messengers are compared with the time course of bradykinin-stimulated increases in free intracellular Ca2+ concentrations and noradrenaline release.
