This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map 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 TOO, C. K. L. Articles by GREENWOOD, F. C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by TOO, C. K. L. Articles by GREENWOOD, F. C.

Relaxin Increases the Release of Plasminogen Activator, Collagenase, and Proteoglycanase from Rat Granulosa Cells in Vitro^*

CATHERINE K. L. TOO, GILLIAN D. BRYANT-GREENWOOD and F. C. GREENWOOD

Departments of Biochemistry and Biophysics and Anatomy and Reproductive Biology, University of Hawaii Honolulu, Hawaii 96822

Address requests for reprints to: G. D. Bryant-Greenwood, Department of Anatomy and Reproductive Biology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, John A. Burns School of Medicine, 1960 East-West Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822.

Abstract

Relaxin (Rlx) is shown in vitro to increase the release of plasminogen activator (PA) activity from granulosa cells obtained from 28-day-old rats after priming 48 h before with PMSG. Priming with PMSG was essential for the subsequent marked increase in PA by the addition of Rlx to these cells in vitro. Under the same conditions Rlx also increased the release of both total collagenase and total proteoglycanase activities but not of β-glucuronidase activity. The total collagenase and proteoglycanase activities of control cells are made up of essentially equal amounts of their respective active and latent enzymes. Rlx stimulation increases the amounts of the respective active enzymes while the latent collagenase and proteoglycanase activities are unchanged or decreased, respectively. The enzyme β-glucuronidase was not stimulated by Rlx and appears not to be involved in follicular proteoglycan degradation.

Granulosa cells harvested from preantral follicles responded most to FSH by PA production whereas cells from antral follicles responded more to LH, reflecting the known changes in concentration of FSH and LH receptors on these cells. The release of PA is maximal by all four hormones studied (FSH, LH, prostaglandin E₁, and Rlx) on granulosa cells harvested from rats 48 h after PMSG treatment and this suggests that the follicles at this time are a mixture of both preantral and antral stages. The PA response to FSH is lost by 60 h after PMSG at the same time that the response to prostaglandin Ei is maintained at the same level, whereas that to Rlx and LH, although still significantly higher than controls, were decreased. By 70 h after PMSG, postovulatory, the responses to all hormones studied were lost.

Thus, the involvement of PA in ovarian connective tissue alterations appears to be greatest in the period of follicular antrum formation rather than just before ovulation. Rlx is one of a number of hormones involved in the sequence of events culminating in follicle connective tissue remodeling as shown by its action on the release of three intrafollicular enzymes. (Endocrinology 115: 1043–1050, 1984)

Footnotes

^* This work was supported by Research Grant HD-06633 from the NICHD and the Leahi Foundation.

Currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Mineralized Tissue Research Branch, NIDR.

Received December 21, 1983.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. S. Samuel Relaxin: Antifibrotic Properties and Effects in Models of Disease Clin. Med. Res., November 1, 2005; 3(4): 241 - 249. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				K. Shirota, K. Tateishi, T. Koji, Y. Hishikawa, T. Hachisuga, M. Kuroki, and T. Kawarabayashi Early Human Preantral Follicles Have Relaxin and Relaxin Receptor (LGR7), and Relaxin Promotes Their Development J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., January 1, 2005; 90(1): 516 - 521. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				O. D. Sherwood Relaxin's Physiological Roles and Other Diverse Actions Endocr. Rev., April 1, 2004; 25(2): 205 - 234. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. E. Curry Jr. and K. G. Osteen The Matrix Metalloproteinase System: Changes, Regulation, and Impact throughout the Ovarian and Uterine Reproductive Cycle Endocr. Rev., August 1, 2003; 24(4): 428 - 465. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Hombach-Klonisch, M. Abd-Elnaeim, J. A. Skidmore, R. Leiser, B. Fischer, and T. Klonisch Ruminant Relaxin in the Pregnant One-Humped Camel (Camelus dromedarius) Biol Reprod, April 1, 2000; 62(4): 839 - 846. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				S.-C. Tsai, C.-C. Lu, J.-J. Chen, Y.-C. Chiao, S.-W. Wang, J.-J. Hwang, and P. S. Wang Inhibition of salmon calcitonin on secretion of progesterone and GnRH-stimulated pituitary luteinizing hormone Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab, July 1, 1999; 277(1): E49 - E55. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. D. Graham and C. L. Clarke Physiological Action of Progesterone in Target Tissues Endocr. Rev., August 1, 1997; 18(4): 502 - 519. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]