In vitro incubation of isolated rat liver cells in a serum-free buffer leads to the suppression of the glycogenolytic effect of phenylephrine and the simultaneous emergence of a glycogenolytic response to isoproterenol within 4 hr. This time-dependent conversion of the adrenergic receptor response from a, to (3 type is prevented by the presence in the incubation medium of 0.5% fatty-acid-free, but not regular, bovine serum albumin. A 20-min exposure of freshly isolated liver cells to arachidonic acid (10 jzg/ml), but not to stearic or palmitic acid, causes an acute shift in the receptor response from a, to mixed al/f type, similar in direction to that seen after prolonged incubation of the cells. This effect of arachidonic acid is prevented by 0.2 FiM ibuprofen but not by the same concentration of nordihydroguaiaretic acid. Ibuprofen (1 puM) or indomethacin (1 ,AM) also inhibits the time-dependent shift in the receptor response. Actinomycin D inhibits the change in receptor response that is caused by prolonged incubation but not the change that is caused by exogenous arachidonic acid. It is proposed that the time-dependent conversion from a,-to (3-adrenergic receptor-mediated glycogenolysis in isolated rat liver cells is related to a parallel increase in the phospholipasemediated release of arachidonic acid and the subsequent formation of a key cyclooxygenase metabolite. A protein factor appears to be involved in the regulation of the release of arachidonic acid but not in the action of its metabolite. A possible mechanism by which this metabolite may regulate inverse changes in the coupling of a,-and P-receptors to postreceptor pathways is discussed.Adrenergic receptor mechanisms in the rat liver display unusual plasticity. In the liver of adult, male rats, the glycogenolytic effect of catecholamines is mediated by a calcium-linked, cAMP-independent, a1-adrenergic mechanism (1). The same effect, however, is mediated by a predominantly 3-adrenergic, cAMP-dependent mechanism in the liver of female (2) and fetal rats (3) and in male rats under certain conditions, including thyroid (4, 5) and glucocorticoid deficiency (6), malignant transformation (7), cholestasis (8), fasting (9), and liver regeneration (8,10). A conversion from a,-to predominantly (-adrenergic glycogenolysis has also been observed in vitro, during primary culturing of rat hepatocytes (11), or after short-term incubation of the isolated cells in a serum-free medium (12). By using the latter system, we have recently observed that lipomodulin, an endogenous, phospholipase-inhibitory protein (13), can reverse the time-dependent shift from a1-to Preceptor mediated glycogenolysis, whereas melittin, an activator of phospholipase A2, accelerates it (12). These findings have suggested that the time-dependent conversion of the hepatic adrenergic receptor response is related to a parallel increase in membrane phospholipase A2 activity (12), but have not clarified the possible mechanism of this effect. Phospholipase A2 catalyzes the release from memb...