Serum, like phorbol esters, rapidly activates protein kinase C in intact quiescent fibroblasts

Addition of serum to quiescent cultures of Swiss 3T3 cells and mouse embryo fibroblasts causes a rapid increase in the phosphorylation of an 80 000 mol. wt. cellular protein (termed 80 K). The effect is dose‐ and time‐dependent; enhancement in 80 K phosphorylation can be detected as early as 10‐15 s after adding serum. In contrast, platelet‐derived growth factor elicits the response after a lag of 1.5 min suggesting that this growth factor does not mediate the response to serum. Recently a rapid increase in the phosphorylation of an 80 K cellular protein following treatment with phorbol esters or diacylglycerol has been shown to reflect the activation of protein kinase C in intact fibroblasts. The 80 K phosphoproteins generated in response to serum and to phorbol dibutyrate (PBt2) co‐migrated in one‐ and two‐dimensional PAGE and produced identical phosphopeptide fragments when subjected to partial digestion with Staphyloccocus aureus V8 protease. These observations suggest that the same 80 K protein is generated in response to serum and PBt2. We conclude that activation of protein kinase C in intact cells is one of the earliest effects elicited by serum in quiescent fibroblasts.