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Catecholamine-Induced Stimulation of Progesterone and Adenosine 3',5'-Monophosphate Production by Dispersed Ovine Luteal Cells^*

ALEXANDER W. JORDAN, III, JAMES L. CAFFREY and GORDON D. NISWENDER

Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado 80523

Abstract

Epinephrine (E), isoproterenol (ISO), and norepinephrine (NE) as well as LH and N,Ó-dibutyryl cAMP [(Bu)₂cAMP] stimulated progesterone production by enzymatically dispersed cells of the ovine corpus luteum. cAMP synthesis was also stimulated by LH and the catecholamines. The hormonally induced stimulation of progesterone and cAMP synthesis was inhibited by the β-adrenergic antagonist propranolol at a concentration (3 x 10^-4 M) at which the drug acts nonspecifically on plasma membranes. At a concentration where propranolol acts as a competitive inhibitor of β-adrenergic receptors (6 x 10^-6 M), propranolol did not block LH or (Bu)₂cAMP-induced steroidogenesis but continued to inhibit the stimulatory effect of the catecholamines.

Catecholamines might exert an indirect effect on steroidogenesis by stimulating fibroblasts or erythrocytes to produce cAMP which could then diffuse into granulosa and thecal cells to stimulate progesterone production. However, incubation of isolated small cells (fibroblasts and erythrocytes) revealed that these cells were incapable of producing measurable amounts of cAMP in response to E or LH. These findings suggest the presence of a functional β-adrenergic receptor, coupled to adenylate cyclase, on the steroidogenic cells of the ovine corpus luteum.

When dose-response curves for LH and E were used to investigate the relationship between cAMP production and steroidogenesis, it was found that concentrations of LH or E that elicited near maximal progesterone production had no effect on cAMP levels. Thus, a dissociation between luteal steroidogenesis and cAMP production at low hormone concentrations seems to exist not only for LH but for E as well.

Footnotes

^* A preliminary report of some of this work was presented at the FASEB meetings, Chicago, IL, April 5,1977. This work was supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

To whom reprint requests should be addressed.

Received May 20, 1977.

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