Hormonal activation of ionic currents in follicle-enclosed Xenopus oocytes

Membrane currents were recorded, using the voltage clamp technique, from Xenopus laevis oocytes still surrounded by their enveloping follicular and epithelial cells. Exposure of the follicles to mammalian gonadotropins elicited a current generated largely by an increase in membrane K+ conductance. The gonadotropin response resembled responses elicited by adenosine and catecholamines in the same follicle, but was not blocked by purinergic or catecholaminergic antagonists. The gonadotropin-induced currents were potentiated by the adenylate cyclase activator forskolin and by phosphodiesterase inhibitors; similar currents were elicited in the same follicle by intraoocyte injection of cAMP, which indicates a role for this second messenger in the response mechanism. Gonadotropin responses were either abolished or substantially reduced after treatments that remove the ovarian epithelial and follicular cells. Our experiments suggest that the gonadotropin receptors, and the K+ channels they regulate, reside in the follicular cells.