Abstract
Recently, cadmium has been described to disturb ovarian function in rats. In this paper the direct influence of cadmium on steroid production of ovarian cellsin vitro has been studied. Granulosa and luteal cells were obtained from proestrous and pregnant rats, and incubated with 0, 5, 10, 20 or 40 μg ml−1 CdCl2 in the presence or absence of 0.1–1000 ng ml−1 follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) or luteinizing hormone (LH) for 24 or 48 h. Production of progesterone (P) and 17β-estradiol (E2) by granulosa and that of P by luteal cells were measured by radioimmunoassay. In FSH-stimulated granulosa cell cultures, 5 and 40 μg ml−1 CdCl2 suppressed P accumulation to 65 and 10%, respectively; accumulation of E2 (at 5 μg ml−1 CdCl2) decreased to 44%. P production of LH-supported luteal cells dropped to 86 and 66%, respectively, when 5 and 40 μg ml−1 CdCl2 was added to the medium. No alteration in basal P accumulation occurred in granulosa and luteal cell cultures following incubations with 20 and 40 μg ml−1 CdCl2, whereas basal E2 production of granulosa cells was markedly diminished. It is concluded that CdCl2 suppressing steroid synthesisin vitro exerts a direct influence on granulosa and luteal cell function.
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Paksy, K., Varga, B. & Lázár, P. Cadmium interferes with steroid biosynthesis in rat granulosa and luteal cellsin vitro . Biometals 5, 245–250 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01061225
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01061225