Secretion of an FSH-Inhibiting Factor by Cultured Sertoli Cells

Abstract

Levels of LH and FSH released in vitro by rat anterior pituitary cells which were either co-cultured with isolated rat Sertoli cells or were grown with spent media recovered from the cultured Sertoli cells were measured by radioimmunoassay. The amounts of FSH released by pituitary cells grown for three days with Sertoli cells isolated from 31-36 day old rats or spent media from the cultured Sertoli cells, were significantly (P less than 0.01) lower compared to control pituitary cultures grown with fresh chemically defined medium. In contrast, the levels of LH were similar to the controls. The selective inhibition of FSH release was not observed when pituitary cells were co-cultured with rat spleen or kidney cells or with ruptured Sertoli cells. The FSH-inhibiting Sertoli-cell factor (SCF) was found to be a heat-labile macromolecule. It is suggested that the SCF may be secreted by the Sertoli cells in vivo, and regulate FSH secretion via negative feedback mechanism at the pituitary level.

Seminal fluid transferrin as an index of gonadal function in men

“…Furthermore, deterioration in spermatogenesis has classically been related to increases in serum FSH (de Kretser et al, 1972). We found an inverse relationship between serum FSH and seminal fluid transferrin, in contrast to some published reports (Sueldo et al, 1984;Orlando et al, 1985;Chan et al, 1986) and in agreement with others (Holmes et al, 1982 (Franchimont et al, 1972;Steinberger & Steinberger, 1976). …”

Inhibin production by bovine ovarian tissues in vitro and its regulation by androgens

“…It is possible, however, that the concentrating effect of ultrafiltration promotes aggregation of lower molecular weight forms. The loss of inhibin activity of bovine granulosa cell culture medium by heating to 80°C for 30 min is consistent with the finding that inhibin present in Sertoli cell culture medium (Steinberger & Steinberger, 1976) and rete testis fluid (Franchimont et al, 1979) is also thermolabile.…”

International collaborative study by in vitro bioassays of the first International Standard for porcine inhibin

“…Although exhibited some protease activity when tested with a chromogenic substrate (Caygill, 1977 ai, 1979;Franchimont et ai, 1979;Scott et al, 1980;Miyamoto et al, 1985), one used female rats (Sasamoto et al, 1987), one used young (18-20 days old) male rats (Steinberger & Steinberger, 1976), one had a short-term (1 h preincubation, 4 h incubation with inhibin) culture of whole pituitary glands from rats (Sheth, 1987) (Welschen et al, 1975); ovine FSH was measured according to a published method (McNeilly et ai, 1976).…”