ABSTRACT-Calphostin C, a protein kinase C inhibitor, reduced phorbol ester-induced enhancement of catecholamine secretion but not primary Ca"-induced secretion from digitonin-permeabilized bovine adrenal medullary cells, indicating that this compound selectively inhibited protein kinase C-dependent secretion.Keywords: Adrenal medulla, Protein kinase C, Secretion Nicotinic agonist-induced catecholamine secretion from bovine adrenal medullary cells is triggered by a rise in the cytosolic Ca2+ concentration as a consequence of an increased permeability of the plasma membrane to extracellular Ca 2+. The sequence of the events between a rise in the cytosolic Ca 21 concentration and exocytotic catecholamine secretion remains poorly understood. Sev eral lines of evidence indicate that Ca 2+-activated, phos pholipid-dependent protein kinase (protein kinase C) is involved in the process of exocytosis (1-3). Ca 21 influx into the cells causes both the translocation of protein kinase C molecules to the membrane and diacylglycerol accumulation from the breakdown of phosphoinositides, which results in the activation of protein kinase C (2). Active phorbol esters that can replace diacylglycerol in stimulating protein kinase C also potentiate Ca 2+-in duced catecholamine secretion from electropermeabilized and digitonin-permeabilized adrenal medullary cells (1, 3). Moreover, a variety of protein kinase C inhibitors such as neomycin, spermine, calmidazolium and polymyx in B have been reported to depress not only phorbol ester induced enhancement of catecholamine secretion but also Ca2+-induced secretion (4), suggesting that protein ki nase C plays an essential role in secretion. In contrast, pro tein kinase inhibitors such as staurosporine and K-252a, a pseudosubstrate peptide of protein kinase C, and mild treatment with trypsin were found to reduce only catechol amine secretion enhanced by phorbol ester without effect on Ca" -induced secretion (5 8). Calphostin C has been reported to be a novel and potent inhibitor of protein kinase C and about 1000 times more specific to protein kinase C than other protein kinases such as cAMP-depend ent protein kinase and tyrosine-specific protein kinase (9). Thus, the effect of calphostin C on Ca 2+-dependent and phorbol ester-dependent catecholamine secretion from digitonin-permeabilized bovine adrenal medullary cells was examined in the present study.Bovine adrenal medullary cells were isolated by sequen tial digestion of adrenal medullary slices with collagenase as reported previously (10), purified by a Percoll (Phar macia, Uppsala, Sweden) gradient and maintained as monolayer cultures in Eagle's minimal essential medium containing 10°70 heat-inactivated calf serum, 100 units/ml penicillin, 100 pg/ml streptmycin, 0.3 pg/ml amphoteri cin B and 10 pM cytosine arabinoside. The cells were plat ed in 24-well cluster plates at a density of 8 x 105 cells/well. The cultured cells were washed with 0.5 ml of sodium glutamate medium consisting of 150 mM monoso dium glutamate and 10 mM Na PIPES (pH...