ABSTRACT

Primary cultures of ovine pituitary cells (from adult ewes) were used to investigate the actions of steroid-free bovine follicular fluid (bFF) and highly-purified M _r 32 000 bovine inhibin on basal and gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH)-induced release of FSH and LH. Residual cellular contents of each hormone were also determined allowing total gonadotrophin content/well to be calculated.

As in rats, both crude and highly purified inhibin preparations promoted a dose (P < 0·001)- and time (P < 0·001)-dependent suppression of basal and GnRH-induced release of FSH as well as an inhibition of FSH synthesis, reflected by a fall in total FSH content/well. However, while neither inhibin preparation affected basal release of LH or total LH content/well, GnRH-induced LH release was significantly (P< 0·001) increased by the presence of either bFF (+ 75%) or highly-purified inhibin (+ 64%) in a dose- and time-dependent manner. This unexpected action of bFF on GnRH-induced LH release was abolished in the presence of 5 μl specific anti-inhibin serum, confirming that the response was indeed mediated by inhibin. Furthermore, neither oestradiol-17β (1 pmol/l–10 nmol/l) nor monomeric α-subunit of bovine inhibin (2·5–40 ng/ml) significantly affected basal or GnRH-induced release of LH.

These in-vitro findings for the ewe lend support to a number of recent in-vivo observations and indicate that, in addition to its well-documented suppressive effect on the synthesis and secretion of FSH, inhibin may actually facilitate LH release in this species, in marked contrast to its action in the rat.

Journal of Endocrinology (1990) 127, 149–159

Recent studies have found follistatin to be an important regulator of activin bioactivity. Whilst a number of assay formats have been described, all are of limited sensitivity and require the use of isotopes. Many use polyclonal antibodies. Furthermore, a wide range of follistatin preparations have been used as standards, complicating inter-laboratory comparison. We now describe an ultra-sensitive two-site enzyme immunoassay using a pair of mouse monoclonal antibodies raised against follistatin 288. The presence of sodium deoxycholate and Tween 20 in the diluent gave results for total (free and activin-dissociated) follistatin. The assay had a detection limit of <19 pg/ml and recovery of spiked follistatin 288 from amniotic fluid, serum seminal plasma, human follicular fluid and granulosa cell conditioned medium averaged 100.7 +/- 7.5%, 89.1 +/- 5.5%, 98 +/- 4.9%, 96 +/- 7.2% and 123.9 +/- 11% respectively. The intra- and interplate coefficients of variation were < 5%. An excess of activin-A (50 ng/ml) prior to assay did not affect follistatin recovery. Inhibin-A, inhibin-B, activin-A, activin-B and activin-AB had minimal cross-reactivity (<0.3%). However, follistatin 315 had a significant cross-reaction (9.9%). Serially diluted human samples gave dose-response curves parallel to the standard. Pooled human follicular fluid contained high concentrations of follistatin (approximately 242 ng/ml). Follistatin was also found in maternal serum during pregnancy (first trimester approximately 0.8 ng/ml, third trimester approximately 2.8 ng/ml), normal male serum (approximately 0.45 ng/ml), amniotic fluid (sixteen week approximately 3.63 ng/ml, term approximately 0.89 ng/ml), seminal plasma (2.4-30 ng/ml) and human granulosa cell conditioned media (approximately 0.44 ng/ml). Serial serum samples taken throughout the menstrual cycle of ten women showed fluctuating follistatin concentrations (approximately 0.62 ng/ml) with no apparent relationship to the stage of the cycle. Interestingly, pooled serum from postmenopausal women appeared to have higher follistatin levels than any of the normal women (approximately 1.4 ng/ml). The possible presence in certain samples of mixtures of follistatin isoforms with different immunoreactivities poses major problems of interpretation in this and all other current follistatin immunoassays. Further work is needed to identify the major immunoreactive forms in different tissues and fluids. Nevertheless, the new assay has a number of advantages over previous assays and should prove a useful tool for various clinical and physiological studies.

Abstract

To investigate the extent to which the direct actions of inhibin, activin and oestradiol on pituitary output of FSH and LH are dependent on the presence of functional gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) receptors, we have compared the effects of these agents on cultured ovine pituitary cells derived from control and GnRH agonist-suppressed ewes.

Chronic treatment with GnRH agonist reduced plasma LH and FSH levels (P<0·01) and abolished GnRH-induced release of LH and FSH both in vivo and in vitro. As expected, basal LH release and LH cell content in vitro were drastically reduced in GnRH agonist-suppressed cells (P<0·001). However, basal FSH release and FSH cell content were approximately twofold higher than in control cells (P<0·001).

Irrespective of whether the cells had been desensitized to GnRH, inhibin and oestradiol were both found to suppress basal FSH release and FSH cell content in a dose-dependent fashion (P<0·001). Although inhibin had no effect on basal release of LH from control cells, it markedly enhanced GnRH-induced release (P<0·001). In contrast, inhibin increased (P<0·001) basal LH release from GnRH agonist-suppressed cells (which were unresponsive to the GnRH challenge). Inhibin had no overall effect on total LH content/well for either control or GnRH agonist-suppressed cells. Treatment with oestradiol, on the other hand, reduced total LH content/well, an effect which was more pronounced with GnRH agonist-suppressed cells (−44%; P<0·001) than with control cells (−14%, P<0·01). Whereas in control cells activin had no significant effect on any aspect of FSH production examined, in GnRH agonist-treated cells activin enhanced basal FSH release, residual cell content and total FSH content/well (P<0·001). Altering GnRH receptor status also modified the LH response to activin. With control cells activin increased basal release (P<0·001), decreased GnRH-induced release (P<0·001) and increased total LH content/well (P<0·001). With GnRH agonist-treated cells, however, activin had a uniform inhibitory effect on each aspect of LH production examined (P<0·001 in each case).

It was concluded that desensitization of ovine gonadotrophs to GnRH by chronic agonist treatment results in a paradoxical enhancement of FSH output in vitro but has little effect on the responsiveness of the cells (in terms of gonadotrophin release and content) to either inhibin or oestradiol. In contrast, GnRH agonist treatment leads to qualitative changes in cellular reponsiveness to activin.

Journal of Endocrinology (1994) 140, 483–493

Abstract

Several years ago we developed a novel two-site immunoradiometric assay (IRMA) for dimeric inhibin. However, relative to the purified 32 kDa bovine inhibin standard used at that time, the immunopotencies of crude inhibin-containing samples were much less than their biopotencies estimated by pituitary cell bioassay. In attempting to improve assay performance and resolve this discrepancy we recently discovered that introduction of a preassay oxidation step to the IRMA results in a dramatic increase in the immunopotencies of inhibin-containing test samples (e.g.: bovine, human, porcine follicular fluid (FF)) and of a new (purified in 1993) 32 kDa bovine inhibin standard. However, the oxidation step did not affect the immunopotency of our original standard (purified in 1987), indicating that this material had undergone spontaneous oxidation during long-term storage, thus accounting for its higher immunopotency in our original IRMA and providing an explanation for the discrepancy between immunoactivity and bioactivity referred to above.

These findings, together with other observations on the behaviour of oxidized and non-oxidized samples of inhibin, related peptide fragments and inhibin-containing samples in the IRMA and α subunit radioimmunoassay (RIA), indicate that the anti-β_A 82–114 monoclonal antibody (E4) used as tracer in the IRMA binds selectively to the oxidized (Met O ^89,91,108) form of the peptide. This property of the antibody can be exploited to advantage by incorporating simple modifications to existing inhibin/activin immunoassays to ensure that all samples and standards are fully oxidized before antibody addition.

Dimeric inhibin levels in individual bovine FF samples (n=105) estimated by the 'oxidized' IRMA (9·66 ± 0·50 ng/μl) were highly correlated (r=0·90; P<0·001) with values derived using the original IRMA (0·75 ± 0·05 ng/μl) but were 13-fold higher. Levels of total immunoreactive (ir)-β (estimated by RIA) and αβ dimer in bovine FF were highly correlated (r=0·89; P<0·001) whereas no correlation existed between levels of total ir-α (estimated by RIA) and either total ir-β or αβ dimer. This observation indicates that availability of β rather than α subunit regulates the amount of dimeric inhibin produced by each follicle. Preliminary observations indicate that the modified IRMA can detect serum levels of dimeric inhibin in rats and women undergoing ovarian hyperstimulation with exogenous gonadotrophin but not in normal women or cattle.

Journal of Endocrinology (1994) 141, 417–425

Abstract

The performance of existing immunoassays and bioassays for activins is compromised by the presence of activin-binding proteins such as follistatin and α₂ macroglobulin (α₂M) in biological fluids. To overcome this problem we have developed a novel two-site enzyme immunoassay procedure for activin-A which incorporates an analyte denaturation and oxidation step. The optimized assay is sensitive (detection limit ∼10 pg/well), precise (mean within- and between-plate coefficients of variation 4·9 and 9·1% respectively) and accurate (activin-A recovery values of 102 ± 3 and 96 ± 5% for bovine follicular fluid (FF) and human serum respectively). In specificity tests, high concentrations of follistatin (500 ng/ml) and α₂M (100 μg/ml) did not interfere with the response signal to activin-A. In addition, no significant cross-reactivity was observed with a range of related molecules including inhibin-A, inhibin-B, activin-B (all <0·5%), bovine pro-αC and follistatin (both <0·1%). Response curves parallel to the activin-A standard curve were obtained for a variety of test samples including bovine, human, ovine and porcine FF, human sera and conditioned medium from cultured bovine and human granulosa cells. Fractionation of bovine FF by SDS-PAGE confirmed assay specificity since only one peak of activin-A immunoreactivity was detected (M _r ∼25 k) in eluted gel slices. However, gel-permeation chromatography showed that under physiological conditions all of the detectable activin-A in bovine FF eluted with apparent M _r values of >700 and 60–200 k reflecting its association with binding protein(s). Analysis of bovine FF samples (n=76) from morphologically dominant follicles during the luteal phase showed that activin-A levels were positively correlated with inhibin-A (r=+0·54; P<0·001) and total β subunit immunoreactivity (r=+0·32; P<0·005) but not with total α subunit immunoreactivity (r= −0·09). Classification of these follicles according to oestrogenic status showed that activin-A, inhibin-A and total β subunit levels were highest in oestrogen-inactive follicles (P<0·01) whereas total α subunit levels were lowest in these follicles (P<0·001). Activin-A levels were measurable in all human serum samples analysed, ranging from 128 pg/ml during the normal menstrual cycle, 210 pg/ml in women undergoing ovarian hyperstimulation and ∼ 500 pg/ml in postmenopausal women to over 4000 pg/ml during pregnancy.

In conclusion, the present assay provides a reliable method for quantitating total (i.e. bound+free) activin-A concentrations in a variety of biological samples and should prove useful for further in vivo and in vitro studies in a range of species including man.

Journal of Endocrinology (1996) 148, 267–279

Abstract

Monoclonal antibodies, specific for the βa and βb subunits of activin, were used to develop a new two-site ELISA for activin-AB. The assay had a detection limit of 0·19 ng/ml. High concentrations of activin-AB were found in bovine, ovine and porcine follicular fluids (FF), with less in human FF (1310, 1730, 688 and 7 ng/ml respectively). Recovery of spiked activin-AB standard from human, bovine and ovine FFs and from homogenized human placental extracts averaged 91%, 115%, 115% and 94% respectively. Within-plate coefficients of variation for different concentrations of activin-AB were between 1·3% and 2·67%. The between-plate coefficient of variation was 5·5%. Crossreactivity experiments showed the high specificity of the assay for activin-AB, with inhibin-A, inhibin-B, follistatin, activin-A and activin-B all cross-reacting <0·2%. Incubation with high concentrations of follistatin (500 ng/ml) prior to assay did not affect the recovery of activin-AB. Samples of bovine, porcine, ovine and human FF gave dose responses parallel to that of the standard, as did bovine granulosa cell-conditioned media. In human and porcine FF, levels of activin-A and activin-AB were similar whereas, in bovine and ovine FF, activin-A levels were approximately threefold higher than activin-AB levels. As we have reported previously for activin-A, nearly all of the endogenous activin-AB in bovine FF was detected in the eluate from gel permeation chromatography with an M _r of >700 000 indicating its association with higher molecular weight binding protein(s). By contrast, after denaturation, immunoreactive activin-AB was detected with an M _r of ∼25 000 consistent with the complete dissociation from binding proteins.

Activin-A was detected in relatively high concentrations in human FF (∼5 ng/ml), homogenized placental extracts (4·35–95·5 ng/g), sera from pregnant women (>4 ng/ml) and amniotic fluid (3–13 ng/ml), and in much lower concentrations in postmenopausal serum (500 pg/ml), normal cycle serum (100–200 pg/ml), serum from gonadotrophin-treated women (200 pg/ml) and normal adult male serum (225 pg/ml). Activin-A was also found in the culture media from explants of human amnion, chorion, maternal decidua and placenta. In marked contrast, activin-AB was undetectable (<0·19 ng/ml) in all of these samples with the exception of human FF (∼7 ng/ml).

In conclusion, we have developed a sensitive and specific ELISA to measure total (bound+free) activin-AB. Preliminary results show a more restricted distribution of this isoform compared with activin-A. The presence of high levels of both activin-A and activin-AB in FF suggests a function for both isoforms in the developing ovarian follicle.

Journal of Endocrinology (1997) 153, 221–230