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Relaxin Affects the Shape of Rat Myometrial Cells in Culture^*

C. J. HSU and B. M. SANBORN

Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of Texas Medical School and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Houston, Texas 77030
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Medical School and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Houston, Texas 77030

Address all correspondence and reprint requests to: Dr. B. Sanborn, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, P.O. Box 20708, Houston, Texas 77225.

Abstract

The shape of rat myometrial cells in culture was altered by exposure to hormones. Oxytocin (107 µU/ml) significantly decreased mean cell length and area. Treatment of oxytocin-treated cells with relaxin (1.5 µg/ml), isoproterenol (10 µM) or (Bu)₂ cAMP (1 mM) for 15 min resulted in a significant increase in cell length and area. The effect of relaxin was time dependent, with a significant increase in cell length by 1 min and in cell area by 3 min. Relaxin elicited a concentrationdependent increase in cell length and area between 0.1 and 2 µg/ml. The actions of relaxin correlate in time course and concentration dependence with its effects on cAMP elevation in the presence of 0.4 µM forskolin and on changes in myosin light chain kinase kinetic parameters in these cells. Myometrial cells in culture constitute a useful model system in which to correlate physical and biochemical effects of relaxin and other hormones. (Endocrinology 118: 495–498, 1986)

Footnotes

^* This work was supported in part by NIH Grant HD-09618 (to B.M.S.). Portions of this work were reported in preliminary form at the 17th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction, Laramie, WY, 1983, (Abstract 242).

This work was performed by C. J. Hsu in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree in the Program in Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Texas Health Science Center. Present address: Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Pennsylvania State University, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania 17033.

Received February 15, 1985.

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