Activation of platelets by different agents results in the increased tyrosine phosphorylation of several substrate proteins. Thus, the effect of endothelin-1 on the stimulation of tyrosine phosphorylation in rabbit platelets can be inhibited by preincubation with forskolin, which increase the cAMP level. However, incubations of platelets with 8-Bromo-cGMP showed lower inhibitory effect. Forskolin produced a dose-dependent inhibition on three different protein substrates, with an IC50 of approximately 12.8, 4.0 and 8.0 microM in the three molecular mass ranges of 50, 60 and 100-200 kDa, respectively. These results show that the endothelin-stimulated tyrosine phosphorylation in rabbit platelets can be regulated by a novel pathway of platelet signal transduction in which the cAMP level could be more relevantly involved than cGMP in some molecular mass ranges of tyrosine phosphorylated proteins.