Effects of forskolin and PGE2 on progesterone secretion by goat luteal cells at early and late stages of corpus luteum

Abstract

The aim of this research was to examine the effects of forskolin and PGE2 on steroid synthesis in goat luteal cells, cultured at early and late corpus luteum. Therefore, the luteal cells removed from both stages of the corpus luteum were cultured with newborn calf serum for the first 18 h. Then the media was changed and different concentrations of forskolin (10, 100 ng/ml) or PGE2 (10, 100 ng/ml) were added to the fresh media for another 96 h. The culture media was replaced every 48 h and the retrieval media was kept frozen at -20 °C, until hormone analysis. Luteal cells treated with forskolin produced between 1.87-13.17 times higher production of progesterone, in a dose-dependent manner, compared to the control at early and late stages of corpus luteum (P<0.05). Lower dose of PGE2 increased the progesterone secretion between 2.19-3.28 times in luteal cells compared to the control groups at the late stage of corpus luteum (P<0.05), but not at early stage. The cells treated with a higher dose of PGE2 had no significant effect (P>0.05) on progesterone synthesis at the early and late phases of goat corpus luteum, in comparison to control groups. As a result, this study in goat luteal cells shows that forskolin promotes progesterone synthesis at the early and late corpus luteum, but PGE2 is only effective in cells treated with a low dose at the late stage.