Summary
Recent studies have helped to define the early events of signal transduction in platelets.
The best-described of these events are those in which heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide
binding regulatory proteins (G proteins) mediate the interaction between cell surface
receptors for agonists and intracellular second messenger generating enzymes. To date
nine different G proteins have been identified in platelets. The:r targets include
phospholipases C and A2, and adenylyl cyclase. Efforts to clone the receptors that can couple to these G
proteins have been successful for epinephrine, thrombin, TxA2 and platelet activating factor. Each of these is comprised of a single polypeptide
with seven transmembrane domains and an extracellular N-terminus. In the case of the
thrombin receptor, activation occurs by a novel mechanism in which thrombin cleaves
its receptor, creating a new N-terminus that can serve as a tethered ligand. Shortly
after activation, thrombin receptors become resistant to re-activation by thrombin.
This desensitization, which appears to involve receptor phosphorylation and internalization,
provides a potent mechanism for limiting the duration of thrombin-initiated events
in platelets and other thrombin-responsive vascular cells.