Phorbol ester regulation of rat granulosa cell prostaglandin and progesterone accumulation.

Tumor-promoting phorbol esters are believed to affect cell functions by activating a Ca+2- and lipid-dependent protein kinase (protein kinase C). Since such protein kinases may be involved in ovarian granulosa cell metabolism, the effects of phorbol esters on prostaglandin (PG) and progesterone (P) accumulation were investigated. Cells were obtained from immature (28-29 days old) rats 48 h after injection of 20 IU PMSG and incubated for up to 5 h. A tumor-promoting phorbol ester, 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol 13-acetate (TPA), at a concentration of 25 ng/ml, caused 4-fold increases in PGE and 6-keto-PGF1 alpha accumulation at 5 h. LH (10 ng/ml) caused 7- and 4-fold increases in PGE and 6-keto-PGF1 alpha accumulation, respectively. When tested in combination, the increases in PGE and 6-keto PGF1 alpha due to TPA and LH were additive. Like the effect of LH, the TPA stimulation of PG synthesis occurred after a delay of 2-3 h. By 5 h of incubation, cells exposed to TPA exhibited increased PG synthase activity in whole homogenates. TPA caused a smaller (2-fold) increase in P accumulation than was observed with LH (10-fold). When tested in combination, however, TPA decreased the P response to LH by approximately 25%. These effects of TPA on basal and LH-stimulated PG and P accumulation were very similar to the actions of GnRH. We, therefore, investigated the effect of exposure to the combination of GnRH and TPA. A GnRH agonist, [D-Ala6,des-Gly-NH2(10)] GnRH ethylamide (GnRHa; 10 ng/ml) caused a 4-fold increase in PGE accumulation. The effect of TPA on PGE accumulation was also additive to that of GnRHa. TPA, on the other hand, did not affect the 2.5-fold P response to GnRHa. Neither stimulation or inhibition of PGE or P accumulation was observed in the presence of a nontumor-promoting phorbol ester. Furthermore, TPA did not affect basal or LH-stimulated cAMP accumulation or basal or LH-stimulated protein kinase A activity. These data indicate that protein kinase C activation can influence granulosa cell PG and P accumulation.