Relationship between the production of prostaglandins and progesterone by luteinizing human granulosa cells

Luteinizing granulosa cells synthesize high concentrations of progesterone, prostaglandin (PG) E 2 and PGF 2 . The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between prostaglandin and progesterone output from human granulosa cells as they undergo functional luteinization in culture. Granulosa cells were partially purified from ovarian follicular aspirates and cultured at a density of 10 5 cells/ml in serum-supplemented DMEM:Ham’s F12 medium for 0, 1 or 2 days. Cells were then switched to serum-free medium for 24 h before measuring hormone concentrations in this spent medium by specific radioimmunoassays. Over the first 3 days in culture, PGF2 and PGE2 production declined progressively by up to 823% coincident with a 5511% increase in progesterone