Control of FSH receptor mRNA expression in rat granulosa cells by 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate, activin, and follistatin.

FSH is required to maintain FSH and LH/hCG receptors at elevated steady-state levels after receptor induction. Although this function of FSH is mediated by cAMP, how cAMP level is related to the maintenance of gonadotropin receptors is unknown. To investigate cAMP's effect on changes in the levels of FSH receptor mRNAs in rat granulosa cells, total RNA from cells was prepared and analyzed by Northern blots. Incubation with 8-Br-cAMP for 24 h produced a dose-related increase in FSH receptor mRNA in granulosa cells of DES-primed immature rats. On the other hand, 8-Br-cAMP, washed at 24 h, exerted inverse dose-related effects on FSH receptor mRNA levels at 96 h. The addition of 1 mM cAMP resulted in higher levels of FSH receptor mRNA than that induced by 0.2 mM cAMP at 24 h, while 0.2 mM cAMP is as effective as 1-2 mM cAMP for the induction of FSH receptor mRNA at 96 h. To further analyze cAMP's role in the production of activin in granulosa cells, we measured activin levels in the culture medium after the addition of 8-Br-cAMP. The levels of activin A were suppressed by the addition of 8-Br-cAMP in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, the procedure by which 8-Br-cAMP was removed after 24 h incubation showed that the level of activin in the medium increased after medium change. With regard to the actions of activin A on gonadotropin receptors, our laboratory has demonstrated that activin A increases the levels of FSH receptor mRNAs. Therefore, cAMP has a negative effect on FSH receptor expression by suppressing the activin level. Since follistatin production is up-regulated by cAMP in this system, we examined the effect of follistatin on FSH receptor mRNA level, which is induced by activin and FSH. Cotreatment with follistatin (0-100 ng/ml) and activin (50 ng/ml) in the presence of FSH (30 ng/ml) caused a significant reduction in FSH receptor mRNA levels induced by activin. Based on these observations, it is possible that cAMP has both stimulatory and inhibitory effects on the expression of gonadotropin receptors, and the overall influence of cAMP on their expression might be determined by the integration of such opposing effects.