Effects of culture age on PRL and GH responses to bromocriptine and somatostatin from primary cultures of rat anterior pituitary cells.

Abstract

AbstractTo study the effects of time in culture on prolactin (PRL) and growth hormone (GH) responses to exogenous stimuli, bromocriptine (10−7M) or somatostatin (10−7M) were added to primary cultures of dispersed rat anterior pituitary cells (DC). Cells which had been in culture for 3, 6, or 9 days were then incubated for 6 hr and the media were radioimmunoassayed for PRL and GH. The inhibitory effects of bromocriptine on PRL release (76% decrease) and somatostatin on GH release (62% decrease) from cultured cells were maximal on Day 3 and decreased with age of the culture. In addition, the inhibitory effect of bromocriptine on GH release (32% decrease) was slight but maximal on Day 3 and decreased with time in culture. In contrast, somatostatin showed slight and stable inhibition of PRL release (26 to 29% decrease) at each of the three time periods. At the end of each incubation, the media were replaced with Ham's F-10 medium lacking bromocriptine or somatostatin and the cultures were incubated again for ...