The Control of Steroidogenesis by Human Fetal Adrenal Cells in Tissue Culture. III. The Effects of Various Hormonal Peptides*

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The effects upon production of cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHA) by human fetal adrenal cells in tissue culture were studied using commercial hCG (0.5 and 5IU/ ml), purified hCG (0.7–6.7 IU/ml), the ±-subunit of hCG (200 and 1000 ng/ml), human GH (50 and 200 ng/ml), human PRL (0.1–100 ng/ml), ±-MSH (0.1–10 ng/ml), corticotropin-like intermediate lobe peptide (200 ng/ml), human ²-lipotropin (0.1 and 0.2 ng/ml), and ²-endorphin (100 ng/ml). Although each peptide was added to the culture medium in a concentration either similar to that observed in the fetal circulation or (where such information was not available) in amounts several times greater than those effective for ACTH in this system, none demonstrated any significant stimulation of steroid production. In particular, repeated studies with hCG showed that this hormone had no stimulating effect upon DHA production, neither in cultures of whole adrenals nor in cultures of separated fetal zone and definitive zone cells. Furthermore, none of these peptides showed a synergistic effect upon DHA production when they were added to cultures together with concentrations of ±-ACTH-(l–24) (102–103 pg/ml) previously demonstrated to represent the middle of the dose-response curve. Indeed, the only significant interactions with a-ACTH-(l–24) observed in these studies were a slight reduction in cortisol production produced by corticotropin-like intermediate lobe peptide and apparent inhibition of DHA production by ²-lipotropin and GH. The data do not lend credence to the suggestion that any of these peptides plays an important role in vivo in stimulating fetal adrenal steroidogenesis.