Pretreatment of A-10 cells with pertussis toxin had no effect on [arginine]vasopressin-mediated inhibition of cyclic nucleotide accumulation. Pretreatment of the cells with the same concentration of pertussis toxin produced 90-95% inhibition of [32P]ADP ribosylation in membranes, suggesting that these cells possess pertussis-toxin substrate and that the toxin enters the cells to reach its site of action. The functional integrity of the pertussis-toxin substrate in these cells is confirmed by the observation that in these cell membranes increasing concentrations of GTP inhibited basal, forskolin- and NaF-stimulated adenylate cyclase activities, and this inhibition was abolished when the cells were pretreated with pertussis toxin. In addition, thrombin-mediated inhibition of isoprenaline-stimulated cyclic AMP accumulation was also inhibited by pertussis-toxin pretreatment of the cells. These data suggest that, unlike thrombin, [arginine]vasopressin-induced inhibitory effects on cyclic nucleotide accumulation in smooth-muscle cells are not mediated by pertussis-toxin substrate.
