The effects of dopaminergic agonists and antagonists have been studied in dispersed bovine parathyroid cells. Dopaminergic agonists caused a transient 20-to 40-fold increase in cellular cyclic AMP and a 2-to 3fold increase in parathyroid hormone release. Dose-response relationships were similar for cyclic AMP accumulation and hormone release, whether studied by increasing agonist concentration or by increasing concentration of antagonist with constant agonist. The effects on the dopamine receptor could be differentiated from those of the previously characterized f3-adrenergic receptor by specific inhibitors. These results appear to represent proof with a homogeneous cell population that dopaminergic receptors linked to adenylate cyclase can regulate a secretory process mediated by cyclic AMP. This system should be useful in further studies on In most of these studies, preparations from heterogeneous cell populations represented by whole organs, tissue slices, homogenates, or membrane fractions had been used, and functional capacity of the cells had not been determined. Thus, it has been difficult to correlate alterations in biological function directly with changes in cAMP, the presumed intracellular mediator of these effects. We recently described the preparation of viable dispersed bovine parathyroid cells which retain many of the morphologic and functional properties recognized physiologically (12). We now show that this cell preparation contains a dopamine receptor that is unequivocally differentiated from the ,B-adrenergic receptor previously identified in this tissue (13)(14)(15)(16). Alterations in cellular cAMP correlate directly with changes in parathyroid hormone (PTH) release, the biologic consequence of increased cAMP in this cell type. Dispersed bovine parathyroid cells thus provide a useful model for studying the interaction of dopaminergic agonists and antagonists with target tissues.
MATERIALS AND METHODSDispersed bovine parathyroid cells were prepared as described (12) by digestion with collagenase and DNase. Incubations were carried out in 20-ml polypropylene scintillation vials (Beckman) in a 370 metabolic shaker (Dubnoff-Precision Scientific Instruments); the medium was Eagle's medium number 2 (bicarbonate deleted) supplemented with 0.02 M N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N'-2-ethanesulfonic acid (Hepes) (pH 7.47), 0.5 mM MgSO4, variable CaCl2 as indicated, and 0.2% heatinactivated bovine serum albumin ("standard medium"). Agonists and antagonists were added directly to the cell suspension (100,000-400,000 cells per ml). In time-course experiments, separate vials were used for each time point.Medium was separated from cells in 400-,g Microfuge tubes (Beckman) and assayed for PTH with a guinea pig anti-bovine-PTH antiserum (12). cAMP was extracted with 5% (wt/vol) perchloric acid, neutralized with potassium bicarbonate, acetylated, and determined by radioimmunoassay with a modification of the method of Harper and Brooker (17). In several experiments, intracellular and extracellular cAMP...