Phos-tag SDS-PAGE resolves agonist- and isoform-specific activation patterns for PKD2 and PKD3 in cardiomyocytes and cardiac fibroblasts

Protein kinase D (PKD) consists of a family of three structurally related enzymes that are co-expressed in the heart and have important roles in many biological responses. PKD1 is activated by pro-hypertrophic stimuli and has been implicated in adverse cardiac remodeling. Efforts to define the cardiac actions of PKD2 and PKD3 have been less successful at least in part because conventional methods provide a general screen for PKD activation but are poorly suited to resolve activation patterns for PKD2 or PKD3. This study uses Phos-tag SDS-PAGE, a method that exaggerates phosphorylation-dependent mobility shifts, to overcome this technical limitation. Phos-tag SDS-PAGE resolves PKD1 as distinct molecular species (indicative of pools of enzyme with distinct phosphorylation profiles) in unstimulated cardiac fibroblasts and cardiomyocytes; as a result, attempts to track PKD1 mobility shifts that result from agonist activation were only moderately successful. In contrast, PKD2 and PKD3 are recovered from resting cardiac fibroblasts and cardiomyocytes as single molecular species; both enzymes display robust mobility shifts in Phos-tag SDS-PAGE in response to treatment with sphingosine-1-phosphate, thrombin, PDGF, or H2O2. Studies with GF109203X implicate protein kinase C activity in the stimulus-dependent pathways that activate PKD2/PKD3 in both cardiac fibroblasts and cardiomyocytes. Studies with C3 toxin identify a novel role for Rho in the sphingosine-1-phosphate and thrombin receptor-dependent pathways that lead to the phosphorylation of PKD2/3 and the downstream substrate CREB in cardiomyocytes. In conclusion, Phos-tag SDS-PAGE provides a general screen for stimulus-specific changes in PKD2 and PKD3 phosphorylation and exposes a novel role for these enzymes in specific stress-dependent pathways that influence cardiac remodeling.