Voltage-dependent calcium current with properties of T-type current in Sertoli cells from immature rat testis in primary cultures.

We have applied the whole-cell configuration of the patch-clamp technique to investigate calcium currents in Sertoli cells from immature rat testis in primary culture. Cesium-filled pipettes were used to block potassium currents. In the presence of 10 mM extracellular calcium (Ca+), depolarizations elicited transient inward currents in the range -70 to +10 mV with a maximal amplitude of -1.3 pA/pF at -30 mV. This component activated in the range -70 to -20 mV (V0.5 = -42 mV) and inactivated in the range -75 to -45 mV (V0.5 = 61 mV). Currents were not modified when barium (Ba2+) was substituted for Ca2+. They were suppressed by Ca(2+)-free solutions, insensitive to Bay K 8644 (an L-type channel opener), and inhibited by 1 mM cobalt, 10 microM nickel, 10 microM isradipine, and 1-10 microM omega conotoxine GVIA (four calcium-channel blockers). We conclude that calcium channels with the properties of T-type calcium channels of excitable cells are located in the membrane of immature Sertoli cells in primary cultures. Because these channels do not appear to be directly sensitive to FSH, their involvement in calcium movements remains to be determined.

Contraceptive gossypol blocks cell-to-cell communication in human and rat cells.

Gossypol (a polycyclic lipophilic agent naturally present in cottonseed, known as a potent non-steroid antifertility agent and a non-specific enzyme inhibitor) irreversibly impaired the intercellular communication between homologous pairs of various cultured cells, from man or rat, involved (Sertoli or trophoblastic cells) or not involved (ventricular myocytes) in steroidogenesis, in a dose-dependent manner. In serum-free assays, a rapid junctional uncoupling occurred in non-cytotoxic conditions. At 5 microM (approximately twice the peak plasma concentration measured in human patients during chronic administration), gap junctional communication was interrupted within 4 to 10 min, without concomitant rise in the intracellular Ca2+ concentration. The latter importantly increased when gossypol treatment was prolonged (cytotoxic effect). The short term uncoupling effect of gossypol was prevented by serum proteins, but long-lasting treatments (48 h) with moderate concentrations (3 microM) elicited junctional uncoupling and impeded the in vitro differentiation of human trophoblasts.

Reversible interruption of gap junctional communication by testosterone propionate in cultured Sertoli cells and cardiac myocytes.

A direct cell-to-cell exchange of ions and molecules occurs through specialized membrane channels built by the interaction of two half channels, termed connexons, contributed by each of the two adjacent cells. The electrical and diffusional couplings have been investigated by monitoring respectively the cell-to-cell conductance and the fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, in Sertoli and cardiac cells of young rat. In both cell types, a rapid impairment of the intercellular coupling has been observed in the presence of testosterone propionate. This interruption of the cell-to-cell communication through gap junction channels was dose-dependent, observed in the concentration range 1 to 25 microM and was progressively reversed after withdrawing the testosterone ester. Pretreatment with cyproterone acetate, an antiandrogen which blocks the nuclear testosterone receptor by binding, did not prevent the uncoupling action of the androgen ester. This observation, together with the rapid time course of the uncoupling and recoupling, and the rather high effective concentration (micromolar) of the steroid compound, suggests a nongenomic mechanism of action. The uncoupling concentrations were very similar to those of other steroid compounds known to interrupt gap junctional communication. The uncoupling could result from a direct interaction of the steroid with the proteolipidic structure of the membrane, that might alter the conformation of the gap junction channels and their functional state.

Influence of the molecular structure of steroids on their ability to interrupt gap junctional communication.

17 beta-estradiol propionate was found to reduce the gap junctional communication in a concentration range similar to that of testosterone propionate, in primary cultures of rat Sertoli cells and cardiac myocytes. Uncoupling was reversible on washing out and occurred without concomitant rise in the intracellular calcium concentration. Esterification was prerequisite for the activity of extracellularly applied steroid compounds (for example, testosterone was ineffective even at external concentrations up to 100 microM, whereas its intracellular application at 1 microM totally interrupted intercellular communication), but their uncoupling efficiency did not depend on the nature of the ester chain nor on its position on the steroid nucleus. The derivatives of two other androgen hormones (derivatives of the androstane nucleus) were also efficient as junctional uncouplers. Among five steroid molecules belonging to the pregnane family, only one (pregnanediol diacetate) interrupted the junctional communication. Neither cholic acid nor cholesteryl acetate or ouabain showed this effect. Altogether, no correlation with the presence or position of double bonds nor with the trans- or cis-fusion of the A and B rings could be recognized. These results suggest that this reversible, nondeleterious uncoupling effect of steroids is independent of the shape of the molecules and is more probably related to their size and liposolubility, that condition their insertion into the lipid bilayer. Their incorporation into the membrane could disturb the activity of the membrane proteins by a physical mechanism.

Follicle-stimulating hormone increases gap junction communication in Sertoli cells from immature rat testis in primary culture.

The gap junction communication in Sertoli cells from immature rat testes, cultured either in absence or in presence of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), was studied by microinjection of a fluorescent dye and by Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (gapFRAP). The cells cultured for 2-4 days in the absence of FSH showed a flattened "epithelial-like" appearance. They were poorly coupled, as judged by the low frequency of cell-to-cell spread of microinjected Lucifer Yellow, and by the value of the rate constant of dye transfer (k) estimated in gapFRAP experiments. However, when two different subpopulations of cells were separately analyzed, namely the cells forming small groups contacting over part of their circumference ("adjoining cells"), and the cells arranged in tight clusters, we found that the value of k in the latter group was much higher, reaching about 75% of that obtained in the presence of FSH. The cells cultured for two days in a medium containing ovine FSH underwent striking morphological changes and presented a rounded, "fibroblast-like" appearance. They were arranged in networks or in clusters. The frequency of cell-to-cell dye diffusion after microinjection and the rate constant of dye transfer were rapidly increased to the same final level by FSH, although they were initially different in these two groups. A concentration dependence of k, in the range 0.05 to 3 ng/ml, was observed in the cells in networks, contrasting with an all-or-none increase in the cells in clusters. Two days after FSH withdrawal, the dye transfer constant returned to prestimulation control values in the cells in clusters, but not in the cells in networks, which maintained a stable degree of coupling comparable to that of the unstimulated cells in clusters. This observation suggests (i) that an initial promoting effect of FSH already exists in the immature rat testis, which is preserved after enzymatic treatment in the cell clusters, but not in the more dispersed cells, and (ii) that the decreased junctional coupling is re-established in the dispersed cells by FSH, through a synthesis or a membrane insertion of connexin. The effects of FSH were mimicked by a brief exposure to 1 mM dibutyryl-cyclicAMP, but not to 10 nM human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), indicating that the gap junction communication in Sertoli cells is upregulated by FSH through a specific membrane receptor, with cyclicAMP acting as a second messenger.

[Increase by FSH hormone and depression by testosterone of the diffusional coupling between Sertoli cells from immature rat testis in primary culture]. / Accroissement par l'hormone FSH et dépression par la testostérone du couplage diffusionnel existant entre les cellules de Sertoli du testicule de rat immature en culture primaire.

Previous studies have suggested that FSH promotes the intercellular coupling of Sertoli cells from immature rat testis in primary culture ([1], [2]). In order to test this hypothesis, we have investigated the diffusional coupling between Sertoli cells in primary culture with the FRAP technique. The coupling is low in unstimulated cells but increases in the presence of FSH. This effect is not reversed by returning to the control medium. Testosterone decreases this coupling, an effect which is reversed by a new exposure to FSH. Taken together these data show that FSH initiates diffusional coupling in Sertoli cells and that testosterone antagonizes this effect.