Staurosporine, a potent inhibitor of protein kinases, is used to study the involvement of protein kinases in cellular processes. In the present studies, the effect of prolonged staurosporine treatment on catecholamine secretion in cultured bovine adrenal chromaffin cells was examined. Staurosporine inhibits catecholamine release stimulated by 10 microM nicotine, depolarizing concentrations of potassium (56 mM KCl), and 2 mM BaCl2. The effects of staurosporine on KCl-stimulated release are time dependent, with a half-time of approximately 50 min and a maximal inhibition at 2 h. Our results indicate that activation of a staurosporine-sensitive protein kinase is not directly involved in the stimulus-secretion coupling process. This does not rule out the possibility that Ca2+/phospholipid-dependent protein kinase or other protein kinases may acutely modulate release. However, these results suggest that a protein(s), which is phosphorylated by a staurosporine-sensitive protein kinase(s), is required to maintain the integrity of the stimulus-secretion coupling process.