This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Copyright Permission Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by DENEF, C. Articles by WOLF, A. D. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by DENEF, C. Articles by WOLF, A. D.

Differential Control of Luteinizing Hormone and Follicle-Stimulating Hormone Secretion by Androgens in Rat Pituitary Cells in Culture: Functional Diversity of Subpopulations Separated by Unit Gravity Sedimentation^*

CARL DENEF, EMMY HAUTEKEETE, RAYMONDE DEWALS and ANNEMIE DE WOLF

Laboratory of Cell Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Campus Gasthuisberg, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven B-3000 Leuven, Belgium

Abstract

Monolayer cultures of dispersed pituitary cells derived from 14-day-old female rats were treated for 70 h with nanomolar concentrations of testosterone (T) or 5-dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and the effect of these hormones on LHRHstimulated FSH and LH release was tested. The effect of androgen treatment on FSH release depended critically on the concentration of LHRH; FSH release either was slightly stimulated, markedly depressed, or not affected at all. In contrast, LH release was profoundly inhibited, except at very high concentrations of LHRH.

Various cell populations, separated according to size and density by gradient sedimentation at unit gravity, did not respond equally to DHT treatment. Inhibition of FSH release did hot occur in all gonadotrophs and was seen only at critical concentrations of LHRH. Stimulation of FSH release, observed at low concentrations of LHRH, was found only in the fraction with the largest gonadotrophs; in the latter there was no concomitant change in LH release. FSH release from small gonadotrophs remained unchanged, but LH release was depressed.

The present observations clearly show that LHRH can provoke selective FSH release without any change in LH release and that LH secretion can be inhibited without a concomitant fall in FSH. It is suggested that such independent control is mediated through separate subpopulations of functionally diverse gonadotrophs. (Endocrinology 106: 724, 1980)

Footnotes

^* This work was supported in part by grants from the Nationaal Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek and the Onderzoeksfonds K.U. Leuven.

To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.

Received May 21, 1979.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J L Crawford, D A Heath, L J Haydon, B P Thomson, and D C Eckery Gene expression and secretion of LH and FSH in relation to gene expression of GnRH receptors in the brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) demonstrates highly conserved mechanisms Reproduction, January 1, 2009; 137(1): 129 - 140. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. Meeran, H. F. Urbanski, S. J. Gregory, J. Townsend, and D. J. Tortonese Developmental Changes in the Hormonal Identity of Gonadotroph Cells in the Rhesus Monkey Pituitary Gland J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., June 1, 2003; 88(6): 2934 - 2942. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. C. Eagle and D. J. Tortonese Characterization and Distribution of Gonadotrophs in the Pars Distalis and Pars Tuberalis of the Equine Pituitary Gland During the Estrous Cycle and Seasonal Anestrus Biol Reprod, September 1, 2000; 63(3): 826 - 832. [Abstract] [Full Text]