The prolonged stimulatory effect of ACTH on 11 beta-hydroxylation, and its contribution to the steroidogenic potency of adrenocortical cells.

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The mechanism of the prolonged stimulatory influence of corticotropin (ACTH) on the capacity of adrenocortical cells to produce cortisol in response to ACTH and more specifically the role of 11 beta-hydroxylation, was studied on guinea-pig adrenocortical cells dispersed from control and ACTH-treated animals. As a result of the previous in vivo exposure to ACTH, the net maximal production of glucocorticoids in response to ACTH (by 10(5) cells and 2 h incubation) increased from 660 +/- 33.9 ng (control group) to 1105 +/- 117.9 ng for cells from ACTH-treated animals (P less than 0.001), whereas the apparent affinity of the steroidogenic response remained unchanged. In addition there occurred an increased conversion of exogenous pregnenolone into cortisol by cells from ACTH-treated animals, indicating a prolonged stimulatory influence of ACTH on the post-pregnenolone pathway of cortisol biosynthesis. The activity of 11 beta-hydroxylation step was therefore examined by incubating the adrenocortical cells from control and ACTH-treated animals in the presence of increasing amounts of 11-deoxycortisol. The maximal capacity of 11-deoxycortisol conversion into cortisol was increased as a result of the in vivo exposure to ACTH, averaging 3423 +/- 211 ng cortisol formed from 5 micrograms 11-deoxycortisol by 10(5) cells from ACTH-treated animals vs 2074 +/- 185 ng for cells from control guinea-pigs (P less than 0.001). However, the conversion of lower amounts of 11-deoxycortisol into cortisol, reproducing quantitatively the maximal effect of ACTH on cortisol biosynthesis, was only barely increased in cells from ACTH-treated animals (P greater than 0.05). Therefore it was concluded that ACTH increases in a lasting way not only the overall steroidogenic capacity of adrenocortical cells but also the maximal efficiency of 11 beta-hydroxylation. Since the latter effect cannot account quantitatively for the magnitude of the lasting effect of ACTH on the maximal capacity of adrenocortical cells to produce cortisol in response to ACTH, it appears that the prolonged influence of ACTH on cortisol biosynthesis should also involve a stimulatory influence of the peptide on earlier step(s) of steroidogenesis.