Evidence against a direct role for protein kinase C in rat submandibular salivary mucin secretion.

Calcium and protein kinase C may be directly involved in exocytosis. However, in the rat submandibular gland, cAMP-mediated events appear to be required for mucin secretion. Calcium may be involved, but a direct signal-transduction role for calcium and protein kinase C in regulating such secretion has yet to be established. With dispersed rat submandibular acinar-intercalated duct complexes, endogenous protein phosphorylation and mucin secretion studies were performed to determine if 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (PMA), a specific activator of protein kinase C, could act as an effective secretagogue for mucin secretion and if specific protein phosphorylation could be assigned to protein kinase C activation. PMA did not elicit such phosphorylation and it only slightly increased mucin secretion at high concentrations; these slight increases appeared to be non-specific. Therefore, protein kinase C activation may not be directly involved in regulating rat submandibular mucin secretion.