Biology of Reproduction, Vol 23, 918-923, Copyright © 1980 by Society for the Study of Reproduction

Prostaglandins Do Not Affect Steroidogenesis and Are Not Being Produced in Response to oLH in Chicken Granulosa Cells

¹ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Department of Pbysiology, St. Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63104

The aim of this study was twofold. First, to evaluate the effects of PGE₂ and PGF₂ on basal and oLH-promoted progesterone release in vitro and in vivo and second, to study the effects of oLH on the production of PGE, PGF, and 6-keto-PGF₁ in cultured chicken granulosa cells. A radioimmunoassay was developed to measure the latter prostaglandin, a stable product of prostacyclin (PGI₂). We found that neither prostaglandins affected progesterone release in granulosa cells or the concentration of this steroid in the plasma. With the exception of high doses of PGE₂ (1 and 5 µg/ml), which partially suppressed oLH-stimulated progesterone production in vitro, there was no effect in vitro or in vivo on gonadotropin-induced steroidogenesis. Moreover, oLH (0.1 and 5 µg/ml) failed to stimulate the production of PGE, PGF, or 6-keto-PGF₁ in granulosa cells up to 7 h of incubation. These results indicate that the above prostaglandins are not involved in LH-promoted steroidogenesis in the domestic fowl either directly or as mediators/modulators.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work was supported in part by NIH grant HD 09763. oLH was a gift from the Hormone Distribution Officer of NIAMDD, Bethesda, MD, and the prostaglandins were generously supplied by Dr. John Pike, the Upjohn Co., Kalamazoo, MI. We are indebted to Dr. H. V. Biellier, University of Missouri, Columbia, for providing the experimental animals and to Miss Jan Kirchoff for excellent secretarial help.