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Paracrine Regulation of FSH by Follistatin in Folliculostellate Cell-Enriched Primate Pituitary Cell Cultures

Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism (S.K., S.J.W.), Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213; and Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism (Y.F., Y.O., S.J.W.), University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky 40202

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr. Stephen J. Winters, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, University of Louisville, ACB-A3G11, 550 Jackson Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202. E-mail: . sjwint01{at}gwise.louisville.edu

Primary pituitary cell cultures are an important tool for understanding pituitary hormone gene expression. In the course of study of pituitary cell cultures from nonhuman adult male primates, pituitary secretory cells were noted to be rapidly overgrown by epithelioid cells with the morphological, immunocytochemical, and proliferative characteristics of folliculostellate cells. Using competitive RT-PCR assays, follistatin mRNA levels were found to increase 4-fold as folliculostellate cells proliferated with time in culture, whereas FSH-ß mRNA and FSH secretion were suppressed. Follistatin gene expression was stimulated by activin-A and pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide but not by [D-Trp⁶]-GnRH ethylamide. Testosterone (T) also increased follistatin mRNA levels and follistatin protein secretion. FSH-ß mRNA was stimulated by [D-Trp⁶]-GnRH ethylamide and activin but was suppressed by T. The reciprocal relationship between follistatin and FSH-ß mRNA levels as folliculostellate cells proliferate with time in culture implies a role for folliculostellate cells in the follistatin-activin system in primates. The actions of GnRH and T on follistatin and FSH-ß mRNA levels in these cultures were opposite to effects observed in pituitary cultures from rats and identify species differences in the control of FSH production that may be folliculostellate cell-related.

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