The present study was attempted to examine the effect of staurosporine (STS) on secretion of catecholamines (CA) evoked by cholinergic stimulation and membrane depolarization from the isolated perfused rat adrenal gland and to establish its mechanism of action. The perfusion of STS (3⁓107∼3⁓108 M) into an adrenal vein for 20 min produced a dose-dependent inhibition in CA secretion evoked by ACh (5.32⁓103 M), high K (5.6⁓102 M), DMPP (104 M for 2 min), McN-A-343 (104 M for 2 min), cyclopiazonic acid (105 M for 4 min) and Bay-K-8644 (105 M for 4 min). Also, in the presence of tamoxifen (2⁓106 M), which is known to be a protein kinase inhibitor, CA secretory responses evoked by ACh, high K, DMPP, McN-A-343, Bay-K-8644 and cyclopiazonic acid were also significantly depressed. However, in adrenal glands preloaded with STS (107 M) under the presence of phorbol-12, 13-dibutyrate (107 M), a specific activator of protein kinases (for 20 min), the inhibitory effect of STS on CA secretory responses evoked by ACh, high K, DMPP, McN-A-343, Bay-K-8644 and cyclopiazonic acid was greatly recovered to the extent of the control release as compared to those in the presence of STS only. These results demonstrate that STS causes the marked inhibition of CA secretion evoked by stimulation of cholinergic (both nicotinic and muscarinic) receptors as well as by membrane depolarization, indicating strongly that this effect may be mediated by inhibiting influx of extracellular calcium and release in intracellular calcium in the rat adrenomedullary chromaffin cells through preventing activation of protein kinases. Furthermore, these findings also suggest that these STS-sensitive protein kinases play a modulatory role partly in regulating the rat adrenomedullary CA secretion.
