Inhibitory Effect Of Exogenous Arachidonic Acid Or Linoleic Acid On Rabbit Platelet Aggregation And Release Reaction
In contrast to other release-inducing agents (e.g. thrombin) arachidonic acid (AA) releases only 40-50% of amine storage granule contents and although low concentrations induce aggregation, high concentrations do not. Several theories have been proposed to explain these observations: 1) AA or its products inactivates the cyclo-oxygenase; 2) the products of AA increase platelet cAMP; 3) lipoxygenase products are inhibitory; 4) unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) perturb the cell membrane. Using washed rabbit platelets we examined the effect of AA on platelet function. In these experiments aspirin-treated platelets (ASA 5.5 mM) were exposed to AA (230 μM) for 15 min. and then to PGEj (10 μM) for 30 min. The platelets were then resuspended. These platelets did not aggregate to ADP (9 μM) and their response to thrombin (0.02-0.05 U/ml) was impaired in contrast to control, ASA-treated platelets not exposed to AA. Non-ASA-treated platelets exposed to AA (230 μM), deaggre- gated with PGE1, and then resuspended also did not aggregate in response to ADP (9 μM) collagen, AA (230 μM) or thrombin (0.02-0.05 U/ml). When platelets pretreated with ASA and AA were mixed 1:1 with normal platelets and the mixture stimulated with AA (230 μM), the AA-treated platelets did not release their granule contents whereas the normal platelets did. These results do not support the hypothesis- that the inhibitory effect of AA on platelet aggregation and release is primarily due to inhibition of cyclo-oxygenase or an increase in cAMP caused by AA products. It seems unlikely that inhibition by AA can be due to products of the lipoxygenase pathway, because the effect persists when the platelets are washed and resuspended. Similar results were obtained by incubating platelets with linoleic acid (230 μM). This evidence is compatible with the hypothesis that UFA can inhibit platelet function by perturbing the cell membrane. This effect may be related to changes in receptor availability.