Abstract

Organometals induce platelet aggregation and inorganic metal ions such as Cd2+ or Pb2+ sensitise human blood platelets to aggregating agents and this action is associated with the liberation of arachidonic acid and eicosanoid formation. The same mechanism is observed using human leukaemia cells (HL-60) when treated with MeHgCl or Et3PbCl . The fatty acid liberation within human platelets and HL-60 cells could only be inhibited with phospholipase A2 inhibitors of different specificity.Preincubation of the cells with pertussis toxin reduces the activation induced by Et3PbCl to a great extent. The non-catalytic B subunit, that only mediates the binding of the toxin to the cell membranes, has no effect at all. When summarised, these results suggest that one possible mechanism for the stimulation of phospholipase A2 by Et3PbCl functions via a G-protein dependent pathway.