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Medium hyperosmolarity between 300 (normal medium osmolarity) and 600 mOsm inhibited in a concentration-correlated fashion (r greater than 0.97, p less than 0.001) the rise in intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) and prolactin (PRL) secretion induced in GH4C1 cells by depolarizing 30 mM K+. [Ca2+]i concentration and PRL secretion were tightly related between 300 and 600 mOsm (r = 0.976, p less than 0.001); 50% inhibition of both occurred at 450 mOsm. Medium hyperosmolarity slowed the rate of Ca2+ influx. At 600 mOsm the rise in both [Ca2+]i and PRL secretion was abolished but PRL secretion induced by 1 microM phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate was not significantly reduced. Our data suggest that inhibition of Ca2+ influx may be the primary mechanism by which extracellular hyperosmolarity inhibits PRL secretion induced by high medium K+ in GH4C1 cells. Depression of the Ca2+ intracellular transduction system may play a pathophysiological role in vivo in conditions such as dehydration and hypertonic coma.

To evaluate the role of Ca2+ influx on hormone secretion induced by cell swelling, we have utilized a prolactin (PRL)-secreting rat tumor cell line, MMQ, which has plasmalemma dopamine receptors. Medium hyposmolarity or osmotically equivalent isotonic urea caused prompt cell swelling and a rise in both [Ca2+]i and PRL secretion in a dose-dependent manner. Dopamine inhibited the induced increase in both [Ca2+]i and PRL secretion in a dose-dependent manner but the maximum inhibition was only 50%. This effect of dopamine was prevented by haloperidol. Depletion of medium Ca2+ or blocking Ca2+ influx with nifedipine completely abolished the osmotically induced rise in both [Ca2+]i and PRL secretion. These data indicate that Ca2+ influx through nifedipine-sensitive Ca2+ channels is an essential component of PRL secretion induced by osmotic cell swelling in MMQ cells and that a dopaminergic receptor-linked mechanism influences the opening of these channels.

Tetraethylammonium (TEA), a K+ channel blocker, induced prolactin (PRL) secretion in GH4C1 cells in a dose-dependent manner when applied at a concentration from 1-20 mM. During continuous exposure to TEA, a significant increase in PRL secretion occurred by 20 min and the response was sustained until the end of a 60-min exposure. Blocking Ca2+ influx by employing a Ca(2+)-depleted medium or the Ca2+ channel blocker, nifedipine, prevented induction of PRL secretion by 20 mM TEA. Preincubation of the cells for 10 min with 20 mM TEA did not inhibit PRL secretion induced by thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (TPA) or by cell swelling produced by 30% medium hyposmolarity, but significantly depressed that induced by depolarizing 30 mM K+. BaCl2, another K+ channel blocker, had the same effect on PRL secretion as TEA. The data suggest that blocking K+ channels may cause membrane depolarization, thereby inducing Ca2+ influx which is a potent stimulus for PRL secretion in GH4C1 cells.

Cell swelling produced by a variety of techniques is a potent stimulus intensity-related inducer of an immediate secretory burst of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and prolaction (PRL) secretion from anterior pituitary cells. A 2-min "square wave" exposure to either hyposmolarity or isotonic urea induced stimulus intensity-correlated TSH and PRL secretory bursts peaking within 3 min, but the PRL zenith occurred 1 min later than that of TSH. With continuous exposure to these stimuli, TSH secretion rapidly decreased and remained only slightly above the unstimulated rate after 5 min. PRL secretion fell to and remained below the unstimulated level after 10 min. After stopping the stimulus, another secretory burst ("off" response) occurred with PRL, but not with TSH. A progressive "ramp" increase in stimulus intensity over 18 min induced a corresponding gradual increase in TSH secretion; there was a progressive depression, rather than increase, in PRL secretion during the stimulus ramp, with an off response secretory burst when the stimulus was discontinued. Removal of extracellular Ca2+ or addition of verapamil to the medium did not alter the dynamics of hyposmolarity-induced TSH secretion, but markedly altered those of PRL secretion; there was no off response PRL secretion and a hyposmolar ramp induced a corresponding gradual increase in PRL secretion, with a return to baseline after removing the stimulus. The dramatic qualitative differences in the response of the thyrotroph and lactotroph may reflect differences between the cell types in the size of secretory vesicles, membrane potential, the mechanism of exocytosis, and/or the role of Ca2+ influx across the plasmalemma.

Ethanol has been reported to affect endocrine functions, but its mechanism of action is unclear. To evaluate the hypothesis that cell swelling induced by ethanol permeation through the plasmalemma triggers hormone secretion, we studied the effect of ethanol on both hormone secretion and cell volume in acutely dispersed rat adenohypophysial cells under isotonic and hypertonic conditions. Isotonic ethanol caused a prompt cell swelling and an explosive secretory burst of prolactin and thyrotropin, which were proportional to the concentration of ethanol between 10 and 120 mM. The lowest effective dose of isotonic ethanol was 10 mM, which is below the plasma levels of legal intoxication (16 mM). Removal of medium Ca2+ enhanced the isotonic ethanol-induced increases in both cell volume and secretion. Hypertonic ethanol was ineffective in these effects. These data indicate that, in normal rat adenohypophysial cells, cell swelling caused by the rapid passage of ethanol through the plasmalemma is a potent mechanism for stimulating hormone secretion and this induced secretion is negatively modulated by extracellular Ca2+.

Cell swelling induced by acute exposure to the permeant molecule urea or by medium hyposmolarity evoked a prompt PRL secretory burst from dispersed rat anterior pituitary cells. However, during continuous exposure greater than or equal to 10 min to these conditions inhibition of basal and TRH-induced PRL secretion occurred and there was an "off" burst of PRL secretion following return to basal conditions. Compared with continuous TRH stimulation which causes biphasic PRL secretion with a rapid high amplitude first phase secretory burst followed by a sustained low level second phase of secretion, cell swelling induced only "first phase" secretion. Removing Ca2+ from the medium or adding 50 microM verapamil markedly depressed the "off" secretory burst following return to basal conditions but had no effect on the initial high amplitude burst. Our data suggest that the effect of cell swelling on PRL secretion is complex and that there are at least two mechanisms for PRL secretion in normal anterior pituitary cells; these are differently affected by cell swelling and Ca2+ influx.

In cultured GH4C1 cells quinidine inhibited basal prolactin (PRL) secretion and that induced by 0.1 to 10 nM thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), 30 mM medium K+ or 30% medium hyposmolarity but did not inhibit secretion induced by 100 nM 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate. Inhibition of basal PRL secretion was highly correlated with the drug concentration between 30 microM to 1 mM quinidine; 50% inhibition of basal secretion occurred at 300 microM and at this concentration quinidine completely blocked PRL secretion stimulated by TRH, K+ and hyposmolarity. Significant inhibition of TRH-induced PRL secretion was produced by 15 microM quinidine, a concentration equivalent to that in plasma during standard antiarrhythmic therapy with quinidine in humans. In rats in vivo, a single injection of 2 mg i.p. of quinidine gluconate/100 g b.wt. 1 hr before TRH injection significantly inhibited induced TSH secretion by 15%. Quinidine inhibition of secretion may be caused by blocking depolarization of the cell membrane, thus depressing voltage-gated Ca++ channels and preventing a rise in intracellular Ca++ release.

Although acute exposure to ethanol has been reported to affect hormone secretion, the data are sometimes conflicting, and the mechanism of action of ethanol is unclear. We have examined in GH4C1 cells the effect of isotonic ethanol on cell volume measured with a Coulter counter, the cytosolic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) monitored with fura-2, and PRL secretion analyzed in a perifusion system. Isotonic ethanol caused prompt cell swelling and an explosive rise in both [Ca2+]i and PRL secretion proportional to the concentration of ethanol between 5-120 mM. The increases in both [Ca2+]i and PRL secretion induced by 80 mM isotonic ethanol were essentially abolished by removal of medium Ca2+ or by nifedipine; the nifedipine IC50 was approximately 20 nM. Cell swelling induced by hyposmolarity or isotonic urea similarly increased both [Ca2+]i and PRL secretion. Hypertonic ethanol did not cause cell swelling and was ineffective in inducing an increase in either [Ca2+]i or PRL secretion. These data suggest that in GH4C1 cells a major mechanism by which ethanol stimulates PRL secretion is to induce cell swelling, thus producing enhanced Ca2+ influx through dihydropyridine-sensitive Ca2+ channels.

The mechanism by which 30% medium hyposmolarity induces PRL secretion by GH4C1 cells was compared with that induced by 100 nmol/l TRH or 30 mmol/l K+. Removing medium Ca2+, blocking Ca2+ channels with 50 mumol/l verapamil, or inhibiting calmodulin activation with 20 mumol/l trifluoperazine, 10 mumol/l chlorpromazine or 10 mumol/l pimozide almost completely blocked hyposmolarity-induced secretion. The smooth muscle relaxant, W-7, which is believed relatively specific in inhibiting the Ca2(+)-calmodulin interaction, depressed hyposmolarity-induced PRL secretion in a dose-dependent manner (r = -0.991, p less than 0.01). The above drugs also blocked or decreased high K(+)-induced secretion, but had much less effect on TRH-induced secretion. Secretion induced by TRH, hyposmolarity, or high K+ was optimal at pH 7.3-7.65 and was significantly depressed at pH 6.0 or 8.0, indicating that release of hormone induced by all 3 stimuli is due to an active cell process requiring a physiologic extracellular pH and is not produced by nonspecific cell toxicity. The data suggest hyposmolarity and high K+ may share some similarities in their mechanism of stimulating secretion, which is different from that of TRH.

Extracellular hyposmolarity is a potent direct stimulus for hormone secretion for which a mechanism has not been delineated. The importance of plasmalemma Ca2+ permeability in this phenomenon in pituitary tumor-derived GH4C1 cells was evaluated by comparing the dynamics of changes in cytosolic free Ca2+ concentration [( Ca2+]i) with those of PRL secretion. At a normal physiological concentration of extracellular Ca2+ (1.5 mM), hyposmolarity induced a striking rise in both [Ca2+]i and PRL secretion, which was proportional to the stimulus between 0.50% reduction in medium osmolarity. Thirty percent hyposmolarity induced a 3-fold rise in [Ca2+]i and a 5-fold rise in PRL secretion above the basal level. These effects did not occur in cells incubated in a medium with a Ca2+ concentration lower than 30 microM. In cells incubated in 1.5 mM Ca2+, the Ca2(+)-channel antagonists, nifedipine and verapamil, significantly inhibited hyposmolar-induced increases in [Ca2+]i and PRL secretion. These data suggest that in GH4C1 cells medium hyposmolarity causes a burst of PRL secretion that depends on a similar preceding rise in [Ca2+]i produced by extracellular Ca2+ influx, most of which passes through dihydropyridine-sensitive Ca2(+)-channels.

Depolarizing K+ and medium hyposmolarity caused striking rises in both cytosolic free Ca2+ concentration [( Ca2+]i) and prolactin (PRL) secretion in GH4C1 cells, which were completely blocked by removal of medium Ca2+. However, the increase in [Ca2+]i and PRL secretion induced by hyposmolarity was clearly slower than that induced by K+. Although there was a good correlation between the zenith of PRL secretion and [Ca2+]i induced by various intensities of K+ or hyposmolarity, the regression slopes were significantly different between the K(+)-and hyposmolarity-induced changes (P less than 0.01). There was a good correlation between the maximum rate of change in PRL secretion and that of the increase in [Ca2+]i when the data from the 2 secretagogues were combined (r = 0.994, P less than 0.001, N = 9). We suggest that the rate of increase in [Ca2+]i may be more important than the amplitude of [Ca2+]i in stimulating PRL secretion.

Isotonic urea in medium with a normal 1.2 mM Ca2+ concentration induced a striking rise in both cytosolic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) and prolactin (PRL) secretion, each of whose peaks were proportional to the concentration of urea between 5 and 120 mM. There was a significant linear relationship between the peaks of induced [Ca2+]i and PRL secretion (r = 0.99, P less than 0.001). The increase in both [Ca2+]i and PRL secretion was completely abolished by removal of medium Ca2+ or by 2 microM nifedipine. Hypertonic urea was ineffective in inducing either an increase in [Ca2+]i or PRL secretion. These data support the hypothesis that plasma membrane expansion is a potent non-toxic inducer of hormone secretion and that in GH4C1 cells an increase in [Ca2+]i produced by enhanced influx of extracellular Ca2+ through dihydropyridine-sensitive Ca2+ channels plays an important role in this phenomenon.

Lidocaine at a concentration greater than or equal to 0.1 mM inhibited thyrotropin (TSH) and prolactin (PRL) secretion by perifused acutely dispersed rat adenohypophyseal cells stimulated by 10-100 microM thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) or 30 mM K+. The concentration of lidocaine required for half-maximal inhibition of TSH and PRL secretion was approximately 1 and 0.5 mM, respectively. Maximal lidocaine inhibition of TRH-induced secretion was induced within 15 min and a normal response to these secretagogues returned within 20 min after removal of lidocaine from the perifusion medium. The inhibition of secretion by lidocaine may be caused by blocking depolarization of the cell membrane and depressing intracellular calcium mobilization and calcium influx across the plasma membrane.