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  • Title: Follistatin inhibits activin-induced differentiation of rat follicular granulosa cells in vitro.
    Author: Nakamura T, Hasegawa Y, Sugino K, Kogawa K, Titani K, Sugino H.
    Journal: Biochim Biophys Acta; 1992 Apr 30; 1135(1):103-9. PubMed ID: 1591267.
    Abstract:
    The effect of follistatin on activin-induced granulosa cell differentiation was investigated in freshly harvested granulosa cells from diethylstilbestrol (DES)-treated rats. Activin induced a remarkable change in granulosa cellular morphology from elongated fibroblast-like to round cells, which follistatin prevented. Follistatin itself had no influence on the cellular morphology. We studied the action of follistatin on activin-induced differentiation of granulosa cells cultured in a chemically defined medium. Addition of activin (30 ng/ml) to the culture increased the FSH binding site approximately 2-fold compared with the control (spontaneous expression) level, whereas follistatin reduced the activin-induced expression level to the control level in a concentration-dependent manner. Activin (30 ng/ml) markedly augmented FSH-induced hCG binding and progesterone production by approximately 20-fold, and these effects were suppressed by follistatin in a concentration-dependent manner. Similarly, addition of follistatin to the culture induced a concentration-dependent decrease of activin-enhanced inhibin-producing activity, but had no effect on FSH-induced inhibin production. These results suggest that follistatin/activin-binding protein binds to activin stoichiometrically to suppress the activin-induced differentiation of rat granulosa cell in vitro, but follistatin itself has no direct effect on activin-independent reactions.
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