Kisspeptin-10 facilitates a plasma membrane-driven calcium oscillator in gonadotropin-releasing hormone-1 neurons.

Kisspeptins, the natural ligands of the G-protein-coupled receptor (GPR)-54, are the most potent stimulators of GnRH-1 secretion and as such are critical to reproductive function. However, the mechanism by which kisspeptins enhance calcium-regulated neuropeptide secretion is not clear. In the present study, we used GnRH-1 neurons maintained in mice nasal explants to examine the expression and signaling of GPR54. Under basal conditions, GnRH-1 cells exhibited spontaneous baseline oscillations in intracellular calcium concentration (Ca(2+)), which were critically dependent on the operation of voltage-gated, tetrodotoxin (TTX)-sensitive sodium channels and were not coupled to calcium release from intracellular pools. Activation of native GPR54 by kisspeptin-10 initiated Ca(2+) oscillations in quiescent GnRH-1 cells, increased the frequency of calcium spiking in oscillating cells that led to summation of individual spikes into plateau-bursting type of calcium signals in a subset of active cells. These changes predominantly reflected the stimulatory effect of GPR54 activation on the plasma membrane oscillator activity via coupling of this receptor to phospholipase C signaling pathways. Both components of this pathway, inositol 1,3,4-trisphosphate and protein kinase C, contributed to the receptor-mediated modulation of baseline Ca(2+) oscillations. TTX and 2-aminoethyl diphenylborinate together abolished agonist-induced elevation in Ca(2+) in almost all cells, whereas flufenamic acid was less effective. Together these results indicate that a plasma membrane calcium oscillator is spontaneously operative in the majority of prenatal GnRH-1 neurons and is facilitated by kisspeptin-10 through phosphatidyl inositol diphosphate hydrolysis and depolarization of neurons by activating TTX-sensitive sodium channels and nonselective cationic channels.