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Nitric oxide synthase acutely regulates progesterone production by in vitro cultured rabbit corpora lutea.

We examined the presence and the regulation of nitric oxide (NO) synthase (NOS) using in vitro cultured corpora lutea (CL) obtained from rabbits at days 4 and 9 of pseudopregnancy. The role of NO and NOS on steroidogenesis was also investigated using the same CL preparations after short-term incubations (30 min and 2 h) with the NO donor, sodium nitroprusside (NP), the NOS inhibitor, Nomega-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME) and prostaglandin (PG) F-2alpha. The basal NOS activity was greater in CL at day 4 than at day 9, and was also differently modulated by PGF-2alpha, depending on the age of the CL. The addition of PGF-2alpha to day 4 CL had no effect, but PGF-2alpha on day 9 caused a threefold increase in NOS activity. NP caused a two- to fivefold decrease in release of progesterone from CL of both ages, and this inhibitory effect on steroidogenesis was reversed by l-NAME. All treatments failed to modify basal androgens and 17beta-oestradiol was not detectable in either control or treated CL. These results suggest that NO is effectively involved in the regulation process of steroidogenesis, independently of 17beta-oestradiol. PGF-2alpha had no effect on day 4, but induced luteolysis on day 9, by reducing progesterone (P</=0. 01) to about 18% of control. The luteolytic action of PGF-2alpha was completely reversed by co-incubation with l-NAME, thus supporting the hypothesis that luteolysis is mediated by NO. The addition of NP or l-NAME did not modify the in vitro release of PGF-2alpha. We hypothesised that PGF-2alpha upregulates NOS activity and, consequently, the production of NO, which acutely inhibits progesterone release from day 9 CL of pseudopregnant rabbits.