Gonadotrophin release by gonadotrophs incubated with gonadotrophin-releasing hormone is independent of intracellular cAMP accumulation.

Rat pituitary cells were dispersed with trypsin and separated by sedimentation at unit gravity. The distributions of prolactin (Prl), luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) were determined, and two enriched cell populations (mammotrophs and gonadotrophs) were subsequently cultured. During a 4 h incubation, gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) stimulated the release of LH and of FSH by both the unfractionated population and the enriched gonadotrophs; the magnitude of this stimulation increased with the length of the pre-culture periods, and the amount of LH released into the medium correlated strongly with the amount of FSH, whatever the length of the pre-culture period. The cellular cAMP content was also enhanced during the 4 h incubation, but no correlation was found between the hormone release and the cAMP accumulation. Furthermore, during the first 30 min of incubation with GnRH there was no increase of cellular cAMP, whatever cell population used. We conclude that the gonadotrophin release was independent of the cAMP accumulation observed in pituitary cells several hours after stimulation by GnRH; consequently, the late increase in the nucleotide is suggested to be a non-specific secondary process.