Objective:To examine the secretory effect of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and ACTH on the adrenal glands of prenatal and postnatal sheep.
Methods:Immunocytochemistry was used to examine the adrenal cortex and medulla for 17α-hydroxylase and tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity. Microphysiometric technique was used to measure [H+] after exposure of whole dispersed prenatal and postnatal adrenal glands to PGE2, ACTH, or both.
Results:Immunocytochemistry showed many cortical-type cells in all adrenal medullae and many medullary-type cells in fetal adrenal cortices. Maximum H+ responsiveness to PGE2 deceased with increasing age. The developmental age-related pattern of maximum percentage change in [H+] during ACTH exposure was similar to previous findings with cortisol production as the endpoint. ACTH stimulated H+ production at 80 days' gestation and at all ages greater than 125 days' gestation (P <.05). The molar concentration of ligand required to elicit a response that was 50% of maximum response (EC50) for the ACTH response was lower in fetuses than in newborn lambs (< 1 day and 3 days old), but there was no change in EC50 for PGE2 across the ages studied. Adrenal cell response to ACTH after prior ACTH and PGE2 exposure was higher (P <.05) compared with ACTH after ACTH or ACTH alone at 110 days' gestation only and was lower in 3-day-old lambs.
Conclusions:Based on the ACTH results, microphysiometry was a valid method for investigating dispresed adrenal cell physiology. Prostaglandin E2 stimulated dispersed adrenal cells during the mid-gestation ACTH refractory period, but this effect decreased with increasing age. Prostaglandin E2 sensitized adrenal cells to ACTH at 110 days' gestation but inhibited ACTH effects at postnatal day 3.
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