Enhanced incorporation of exogenous arachidonic acid into phosphatidylinositol and other phospholipids during the early stages of thrombin-induced aggregation in gerbil platelets

The degradation of platelet phospholipids via phospholipase activity is known to occur during thrombin-induced platelet aggregation. Both phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylcholine are considered to be sources of the released arachidonic acid which becomes a substrate for prostaglandin and thromboxane A₂ formation. In this work, the effect of thrombin on the incorporation of exogenous arachidonic acid into platelet membrane phospholipids was studied. Suspensions of gerbil platelets were incubated in aggregometer cuvettes with [¹⁴C] arachidonic acid in the absence or presence of thrombin, and product formation was monitored by thin layer chromatography and scintillation counting. Within 30 sec, the entry of arachidonic acid into phosphatidylinositol was increased by 165% in thrombin-stimulated platelets over controls. Under identical conditions, the incorporation into phosphatidylcholine was increased by only 57%. These results suggest that the incorporation of exogenous arachidonic acid via lysophosphatidylinositol and lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase activities may be intimately associated with thrombin-induced platelet aggregation in the gerbil. Presented in part at the 73rd annual AOCS meeting, Toronto, 1982.