title: Ascorbic acid increases the thyrotropin-releasing hormone content of hypothalamic cell cultures.
abstract: Thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) is one of many COOH-terminal alpha-amidated neuropeptides. Recent work with the intermediate pituitary has indicated that ascorbate is a required cofactor for the COOH-terminal alpha-amidation of alpha-melanotropin. This is consistent with the ascorbate requirement of an enzyme found in pituitary and hypothalamus capable of converting peptides with a COOH-terminal glycine (-X-Gly) to alpha-amidated molecules (-H-NH2). Thus, it has been proposed that COOH-terminal glycine-extended TRH (TRH-Gly) may be the direct precursor to TRH. In the present study, primary hypothalamic cultures supplemented with ascorbate for 7 d contained two- to threefold more TRH immunoactivity (amide-specific) than cultures maintained without ascorbate. A dose-response experiment indicated that 20 microM ascorbate was capable of producing 50% of the maximum observable increase in culture TRH immunoactivity; this concentration is similar to the Km value for ascorbate uptake obtained in adrenal chromaffin and pituitary cells. A stereoisomer of ascorbate, D-isoascorbate, was also capable of producing an increase in TRH immunoactivity, but oxidized ascorbate was not. Recent studies have shown that the amidation enzyme from pituitary is capable of utilizing both L-ascorbate and D-isoascorbate but is incapable of utilizing oxidized ascorbate. The culture extracts were analyzed further by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography; the increased TRH immunoactivity observed in extracts of cultures maintained in ascorbate comigrated with standard synthetic TRH.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001205:Ascorbic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005333:Fetus / Q000378:metabolism; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology; D011761:Pyrrolidonecarboxylic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013973:Thyrotropin-Releasing Hormone / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D013973:Thyrotropin-Releasing Hormone; C040476:thyrotropin-releasing hormone, Gly; D001205:Ascorbic Acid; D011761:Pyrrolidonecarboxylic Acid