title: Rerouting of a follicle-stimulating hormone analog to the regulated secretory pathway.
abstract: LH and FSH are produced by the same gonadotrope cells of the anterior pituitary but differ in their mode of secretion. This coordinated secretion of LH and FSH is essential for normal follicular development and ovulation in females and for spermatogenesis in males. The structural signals encoded in the LH and FSH subunits that govern the intracellular sorting of LH through the regulated secretory pathway and FSH through the constitutive pathway are largely unknown. Our laboratory recently identified the seven amino acid carboxy tail of LH beta as a sorting signal for LH in GH(3) cells. Here we compared the morphological features of GH(3) cells expressing an FSH analog containing the heptapeptide (FL7AA) with wild-type FSH using confocal microscopy. These experiments were performed to develop a rerouting model for examining structure-function links between secretion pathways of FSH/LH and their biological action. Both FSH- and LH-expressing cells exhibit a fluorescence pattern of randomly dispersed cytoplasmic puncta. FL7AA expressing cells have more intracellular accumulation compared with wild-type FSH and display a unique halo pattern of fluorescence near the plasma membrane. Such a pattern was not observed in cells expressing FSH or LH. Our results demonstrate that this FSH analog containing the carboxy heptapeptide of LH beta is rerouted to the regulated secretory pathway in GH(3) cells. This rerouted gonadotropin provides a unique model to study the trafficking, regulation, and function of LH and FSH.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Pearl
authors.forename: Albina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jablonka-Shariff
authors.forename: Irving
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Boime
mesh_terms: D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005576:Colforsin / Q000494:pharmacology; D005640:Follicle Stimulating Hormone / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D007986:Luteinizing Hormone / Q000378:metabolism; D055503:Protein Multimerization / Q000187:drug effects; D021381:Protein Transport / Q000187:drug effects; D055571:Secretory Pathway / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D052683:Somatotrophs / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D014018:Tissue Distribution / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D005576:Colforsin; D007986:Luteinizing Hormone; D005640:Follicle Stimulating Hormone