Abstract

Steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) is a vital mitochondrial protein that is indispensable for the synthesis of steroids. To study the mechanisms of regulation of StAR in rat granulosa cells, we used granulosa cells obtained from diethylstilbestrol-treated immature rats. Northern blot analysis revealed two major transcripts of about 3.6 kb and 1.6 kb of rat StAR mRNA. Rat StAR mRNA had strongly increased within 2 h due to the treatment of FSH or 8-Br-cAMP in this culture, a parallel increase of transcripts of both sizes was observed. Compared to the control, StAR mRNA levels increased in a dose-dependent manner in the presence of increasing concentrations of FSH (1–100ng/ml) and 8-Br-cAMP (0.25–5 mM). Although co-treatment of rat granulosa cells with FSH and TGF-β did not change FSH-induced StAR mRNA levels, these levels in granulosa cells were markedly increased by pretreatment with TGF-β before being acutely (2 h) stimulated with an effective dose of FSH. The stimulatory effect of TGF-β was time- and concentration-dependent (1–30 ng/ml).

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