Gonadotropin-releasing hormone stimulates glycoprotein hormone alpha-subunit messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) levels in alpha T3 cells by increasing transcription and mRNA stability.

Pulsatile GnRH stimulates gonadotropin secretion, whereas continuous exposure to GnRH causes pituitary desensitization and suppressed levels of LH and FSH. At the level of gene expression, continuous GnRH also causes partial or complete suppression of the LH beta and FSH beta genes, but expression of the alpha-subunit gene is stimulated without evidence of desensitization. In this report, we examined the transcriptional and posttranscriptional mechanisms by which GnRH controls alpha-gene expression using the gonadotrope-derived alpha T3 cell line. Continuous GnRH caused a 4- to 5-fold accumulation of alpha mRNA over 72 h, without evidence of a decline. In contrast, measurements of alpha-gene transcription, either by nuclear run-on assays or using a stably integrated alpha LUC reporter gene, revealed that GnRH caused a transient increase in alpha-promoter activity, followed by a decline after 4-6 h. The prolonged accumulation of alpha mRNA at a time when transcriptional activity had abated was accounted for by independent effects of GnRH on alpha mRNA stability. After prior treatment with GnRH, its removal either by washout or using a GnRH receptor antagonist caused an abrupt decline in steady state alpha mRNA levels (t1/2, < 2 h). Readdition of GnRH prevented the decay in alpha mRNA, and experiments using the transcriptional inhibitor actinomycin-D confirmed that this effect of GnRH did not require transcription. Consistent with these results, pulse-chase analyses of mRNA stability demonstrated that GnRH increased the alpha mRNA half-life 6.7-fold, from 1.2 h in the absence of GnRH to 8.0 h in the presence of GnRH. We conclude that GnRH induces a transient burst of alpha-gene transcription that is accompanied by marked induction of mRNA stability.