Microtubules exist in a dynamic equilibrium between polymerized and depolymerized forms in human platelets, playing a major role to maintain the discoid shape of platelets. It has been previously shown that the interaction of aggregating agents with platelets leads to a rapid but transient disassembly of microtubules. ( Steiner and Ikeda, J.Clin. Invest. 63:443,1979 ) In this paper, the role of calcium in the equilibrium between assembled and disassembled microtubules was investigated. The respective pools of soluble and polymerized tubulin were “frozen” by addition of a glycerol-dimethyl sulfoxide-containing medium to platelet rich plasma, preincubated with 2 µM A23187 for various time intervals. The two pools of tubulin were estimated by measuring the colchicine binding activities of total and polymerized tubulin according to the method of Wilson.Resting platelets were found to contain 56.2 ± 2.7 µg tubulin per 109 platelets, of which 56.7 % was in polymerized form. Addition of A23187 to platelet rich plasma produced a transient decrease in the pool of polymerized tubulin within 30 sec., followed by a return to base-line values within 2 min.. TMB-8, a known intracellular calcium antagonist, abolished this transient decrease in polymerized tubulin induced by A23187 in a concentration dependent manner, while indomethacin or acetylsalycylic acid did not.These findings may indicate the important role of intracellular calcium in microtubule assembly-disassembly.
The role of brain protein phosphatases 1 and 2A in the regulation of microtubule formation