Effects of prostaglandin F2α and other potential secretagogues on oxytocin secretion and second messenger metabolism in the ovine corpus luteum in vitro
ABSTRACT Release of oxytocin by sliced or minced sheep luteal tissue in vitro was stimulated up to 1·6- and 2·3-fold by arachidonic acid and the calcium ionophore A23187 respectively. Prostaglandin (PG) F2α and the PGF2α analogue cloprostenol, and other potential agonists known to be active in vivo, including noradrenaline and acetylcholine, were ineffective, as was the phorbol ester tetradecanoylphorbol acetate (TPA). The ineffectiveness of PGF2α was not due to a general unresponsiveness of the tissue in vitro, as PGF2α reduced LH stimulation of tissue concentrations of cyclic AMP and activated inositol lipid hydrolysis. The effect of arachidonic acid was accompanied by release from the tissue of the cytosolic enzyme lactate dehydrogenase (at arachidonic acid concentrations below those required to release oxytocin) and its effect on oxytocin and lactate dehydrogenase release was mimicked by oleic and linolenic acids; arachidonic acid was concluded to act by a non-physiological physicochemical effect without conversion to an eicosanoid. As PGF2α in vitro is known to raise intracellular Ca2+ concentrations in the large luteal cells that secrete oxytocin, and as A23187 stimulates oxytocin release in vitro in the presence and absence of TPA, it is concluded that in-vitro incubation results in an artifactual blockade of the oxytocin-releasing action of PGF2α at an unidentified point distal to the effect on intracellular Ca2+. Journal of Endocrinology (1990) 126, 89–98