Gonadotropin receptors in plasma membranes of bovine corpus luteum. I. Effect of phospholipases on the binding of 125I-choriogonadotropin by membrane-associated and solubilized receptors.

The ability of bovine corpus luteum plasma membranes to bind 125I-choriogonadotropin has been examined after prior treatment of the membranes with phospholipases A, C, and D. Treatment of the purified membranes with low concentrations of phospholipases A and C resulted in the inhibition of the binding of 125I-choriogonadotropin to its receptors, whereas phospholipase D had no effect. Receptor activity was decreased by low concentrations of phospholipase A from either bee venom, Vipera russelli or Crotalus terrificus terrificus. Similarly, low concentrations of phospholipase C from Clostridium perfringens and Clostridium welchii also inhibited the binding activity while comparatively higher concentrations of phospholipase C from Bacillus cereus were required to achieve comparable inhibition. The time required to produce 50% inhibition of in vitro binding by phospholipases A and C was found to be 6 and 23 min, respectively. Upon either removal or chelation of calcium ions by ethylene glycol bis(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N'-tetraacetic acid (EGTA) both enzymes were completely inhibited as evidenced by the complete retention of the membrane binding activity. The decrease in the specific binding of choriogonadotropin to membranes after phospholipase digestion resulted in a decrease in the number of binding sites and was not accompanied by a change in the affinity of the hormone-receptor complex. The rates of association and dissociation of the 125I-choriogonadotropin-receptor complex and the equilibrium dissociation constant (Kd) were nearly identical in untreated and phospholipase-treated membranes. Phospholipases did not have any effect on the preformed hormone-receptor complex or on solubilized receptor. Filtration through Sepharose 6B of solubilized 125I-choriogonadotropin-receptor complex from untreated membranes or membranes which had been pretreated with phospholipase C prior to carrying out hormone binding did not alter the profile (Kav 0.38). Gel filtration of membranes treated with phospholipase A showed two peaks of bound radioactivity with distribution coefficients (Kav) of 0.08 and 0.35, respectively.