The pineal hormone melatonin participates in circadian, seasonal, and reproductive physiology. The presence of melatonin binding sites in human brain and peripheral tissues is well documented. However, in the mammalian adrenal gland, low-affinity melatonin binding sites have been detected only in the rat by some but not all authors. Conflicting evidence for a regulatory role of melatonin on adrenal cortisol production, prompted us to investigate this possibility in a New World primate, the capuchin monkey. Expression of melatonin receptors in the adrenal cortex was demonstrated through pharmacological characterization and autoradiographic localization of 2-[125I]iodomelatonin binding sites (dissociation constant = 96.9 +/- 15 pM; maximal binding capacity = 3.8 +/- 0.4 fmol/mg protein). The mt1 identity of these receptors was established by cDNA sequencing. Melatonin treatment of dispersed cells and explants from adrenal gland did not affect basal cortisol production. However, cortisol production stimulated by 100 nM ACTH was significantly inhibited by low melatonin concentrations (0.1-100 nM); this inhibitory effect was reversed by the mt1/MT2 melatonin antagonist luzindole. Melatonin also inhibited dibutyril-cAMP-stimulated cortisol production, suggesting that melatonin acts through a cAMP-independent signaling pathway. The present data demonstrate that the primate adrenal gland cortex expresses functional mt1 melatonin receptors and shows that melatonin inhibits ACTH-stimulated cortisol production.
Surprisingly, in our modern 24/7 society, there is scant information on the impact of developmental chronodisruption like the one experienced by shift worker pregnant women on fetal and postnatal physiology. There are important differences between the maternal and fetal circadian systems; for instance, the suprachiasmatic nucleus is the master clock in the mother but not in the fetus. Despite this, several tissues/organs display circadian oscillations in the fetus. Our hypothesis is that the maternal plasma melatonin rhythm drives the fetal circadian system, which in turn relies this information to other fetal tissues through corticosterone rhythmic signaling. The present data show that suppression of the maternal plasma melatonin circadian rhythm, secondary to exposure of pregnant rats to constant light along the second half of gestation, had several effects on fetal development. First, it induced intrauterine growth retardation. Second, in the fetal adrenal in vivo it markedly affected the mRNA expression level of clock genes and clock-controlled genes as well as it lowered the content and precluded the rhythm of corticosterone. Third, an altered in vitro fetal adrenal response to ACTH of both, corticosterone production and relative expression of clock genes and steroidogenic genes was observed. All these changes were reversed when the mother received a daily dose of melatonin during the subjective night; supporting a role of melatonin on overall fetal development and pointing to it as a ‘time giver’ for the fetal adrenal gland. Thus, the present results collectively support that the maternal circadian rhythm of melatonin is a key signal for the generation and/or synchronization of the circadian rhythms in the fetal adrenal gland. In turn, low levels and lack of a circadian rhythm of fetal corticosterone may be responsible of fetal growth restriction; potentially inducing long term effects in the offspring, possibility that warrants further research.
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