The level of phosphodiesterase (PDE) activity is lower in collagenase-isolated human fat cells than in adipose tissue fragments. The inhibition is not species-specific since collagenase also inhibits PDE in rat adipose tissue and bovine heart. In subcellular fractions from isolated fat cells, the PDE activities were lowest in the plasma membrane-enriched fractions and highest in the cytosolic f...

Exposure of perfused rat lungs to lipopolysaccharides (LPS) causes induction of cyclooxygenase-2 followed by thromboxane (TX)-mediated bronchoconstriction (BC). Recently, phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors have received much interest because they not only are bronchodilators but also can suppress release of proinflammatory mediators. In the present study, we investigated the effect of three dif...

The rod photoreceptor phosphodiesterase (PDE) is unique among all known vertebrate PDE families for several reasons. It is a catalytic heterodimer (alphabeta); it is directly activated by a G-protein, transducin; and its active sites are regulated by inhibitory gamma subunits. Rod PDE binds cGMP at two noncatalytic sites on the alphabeta dimer, but their function is unclear. We show that transd...

Recent studies have demonstrated that functionally discrete pools of phosphodiesterase (PDE) activity regulate distinct cellular functions. While the importance of localized pools of enzyme activity has become apparent, few studies have estimated enzyme activity within discrete subcellular compartments. Here we present an approach to estimate near-membrane PDE activity. First, total PDE activit...

The binding of cGMP to the noncatalytic sites on two isoforms of the phosphodiesterase (PDE) from mammalian rod outer segments has been characterized to evaluate their role in regulating PDE during phototransduction. Nonactivated, membrane-associated PDE (PDE-M, alpha beta gamma2) has one exchangeable site for cGMP binding; endogenous cGMP remains nonexchangeable at the second site. Non-activat...

In addition to its emerging immunodulatory properties, theophylline is a bronchodilator and also decreases mean pulmonary arterial pressure in vivo. The mechanism of action of this drug remains controversial; adenosine antagonism, phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibition and other actions have been advanced to explain its effectiveness in asthma. Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and cyclic guanos...