Functional Coupling Between Various Phospholipase A2s and Cyclooxygenases in Immediate and Delayed Prostanoid Biosynthetic Pathways

Several distinct phospholipase A2s (PLA2s) and two cyclooxygenases (COXs) were transfected, alone or in combination, into human embryonic kidney 293 cells, and their functional coupling during immediate and delayed prostaglandin (PG)-biosynthetic responses was reconstituted. Signaling PLA2s, i.e. cytosolic PLA2 (cPLA2) (type IV) and two secretory PLA2s (sPLA2), types IIA (sPLA2-IIA) and V (sPLA2-V), promoted arachidonic acid (AA) release from their respective transfectants after stimulation with calcium ionophore or, when bradykinin receptor was cotransfected, with bradykinin, which evoked the immediate response, and interleukin-1 plus serum, which induced the delayed response. Experiments on cells transfected with either COX alone revealed subtle differences between the PG-biosynthetic properties of the two isozymes in that COX-1 and COX-2 were favored over the other in the presence of high and low exogenous AA concentrations, respectively. Moreover, COX-2, but not COX-1, could turn on endogenous AA release, which was inhibited by a cPLA2 inhibitor. When PLA2 and COX were coexpressed, AA released by cPLA2, sPLA2-IIA and sPLA2-V was converted to PGE2 by both COX-1 and COX-2 during the immediate response and predominantly by COX-2 during the delayed response. Ca2+-independent PLA2 (iPLA2) (type VI), which plays a crucial role in phospholipid remodeling, failed to couple with COX-2 during the delayed response, whereas it was linked to ionophore-induced immediate PGE2 generation via COX-1 in marked preference to COX-2. Finally, coculture of PLA2 and COX transfectants revealed that extracellular sPLA2s-IIA and -V, but neither intracellular cPLA2 nor iPLA2, augmented PGE2 generation by neighboring COX-expressing cells, implying that the heparin-binding sPLA2s play a particular role as paracrine amplifiers of the PG-biosynthetic response signal from one cell to another.