Adenosine amplifies follicle-stimulating hormone action in granulosa cells and luteinizing hormone action in luteal cells of rat and human ovaries.

It is known that adenosine amplifies LH-stimulated cAMP accumulation and progesterone production in rat luteal cells. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of adenosine on cAMP and steroid production in short term cultures of rat and human luteal cells in the presence of LH and in rat and human granulosa cells in the presence of FSH. In rat luteal cells, the maximal cAMP response to LH and adenosine amplification of this response occurred in the midluteal phase and was decreased in both early and late luteal cells. In humans, adenosine (50 microM) increased cAMP and and progesterone accumulation by 100% and 40%, respectively, in periovulatory granulosa cells. Adenosine also amplified cAMP accumulation in response to increasing hCG concentrations by 2- to 3-fold in human luteal cells. The ability of the human luteal cell to respond to hCG with cAMP accumulation and the ability of adenosine to amplify this cAMP response appeared to be inversely related to human luteal cell age. In isolated preparations of rat granulosa cells, adenosine amplified cAMP accumulation in response to FSH, and cAMP accumulation was inversely proportional to the duration of follicular development. In human periovulatory granulosa cells, adenosine (100 microM0 increased cAMP accumulation by 2-fold and amplified FSH-stimulated cAMP accumulation by 25%. These studies suggest that in both the rat and human, adenosine may physiologically affect gonadotropin function in both follicular and luteal ovarian tissue.