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In the epithelial cell line FRT, derived from rat thyroid, extracellular ATP, at a concentration as low as 1 x 10(-7) M, specifically increases cytosolic Ca++ two fold over the basal level of 255 +/- 45 nM. A maximum increase of 5 fold over basal is seen at 1 x 10(-5) M ATP. The effect occurs in the absence of any measurable phosphatidyl inositol metabolism and requires the presence of extracellular Ca++, but is independent of extracellular Na+; it is duplicated by ATP gamma S but not by adenosine, AMP, ADP, AMP-PNP, AMP-CPP, or AMP-PCP. In the presence of the P2-receptor antagonist suramin, the ATP induced Ca++ influx is completely inhibited, whereas Mg++, La , and verapamil are ineffective. It appears that the most likely (and unique) mechanism of ATP induced increase of cytosolic Ca++ in FRT cells in an increased influx through the activation of a P2 receptor operated Ca++ channel.

The 1-8 rat thyroid tumor line with a thyrotropin and cholera toxin receptor defect and a deficiency in higher order membrane gangliosides is shown to regain both receptor functions with the in vivo resynthesis or the in vitro reconstitution of higher order gangliosides. Reconstitution was achieved by exposing primary cell cultures of the tumor to preparations of gangliosides from thyroid cells with functional thyrotropin receptor activity.

Thyrotropin causes a rapid and significant increase in the fluorescence polarization of DPH when this hydrophobic probe is incorporated into a strain of functioning rat thyroid cells (FRTL5). This increase is ligand-specific and is not related to cAMP production. The phenomenon seems to reflect the interaction of thyrotropin with the glycoprotein component of its membrane receptor, as suggested by experiments in which thyrotropin causes increases in DPH fluorescence polarization in liposomes embedded with this receptor component but not with gangliosides. A strain of nonfunctioning rat thyroid cells (FRT), exhibiting no reactivity with monoclonal antibodies to the glycoprotein component of the thyrotropin receptor, requires two orders of magnitude higher concentrations of thyrotropin to exhibit a comparable phenomenon.