The role of steroid/thyroid hormones in the regulation of endocrine cells at the level of the pituitary has remained unclear. Therefore, using single-cell quantitative real-time PCR, we examined absolute amounts of transcripts for nuclear receptors [estrogen receptors (ERs) alpha, beta, and gamma; androgen receptors (ARs) a and b; glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) 1, 2a, and 2b; and thyroid hormone receptors (TRs) alpha1, alpha2, and beta] in pituitary cells of immature (IM) and mature (M) male tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus. In the two reproductive stages, ACTH cells expressed only ERbeta, whereas all other pituitary cell types expressed ERalpha + beta, and a subpopulation coexpressed ARa, ARb, GR1, GR2b, and TRbeta but lacked ERgamma, GR2a, TRalpha1, and TRalpha2. IM males had high percentages of LH cells (IM 46.0% vs. M 10.0%), GH cells (IM 23.3% vs. M 7.9%), and prolactin cells (IM 68.8% vs. M 6.0%) with ERbeta, and TSH cells (IM 19.2% vs. M 0.0%) and MSH cells (IM 25.6% vs. M 0.0%) with ERalpha + TRbeta. A high percentage of FSH cells in IM males expressed ERbeta (IM 46.9% vs. M 18.8%), and FSH cells in M males showed significantly high GR1 transcripts (IM 76.0 +/- 5.0 vs. M 195.0 +/- 10.7 copies per cell; P < 0.05), suggesting that FSH cells are regulated differently in the two reproductive stages. Coexpression of ERalpha + beta in high percentages of cells of the GH family (GH, IM 43.8% vs. M 14.3%; prolactin, IM 8.3% vs. M 59.7%; somatolactin, IM 22.2% vs. M 42.2%) suggests that the expression of both ERs is important for functionality. Thus, differential coexpression of genes for nuclear receptors in subpopulations of pituitary cell types suggests multiple steroid/thyroid hormone regulatory pathways at the level of the pituitary during the two reproductive stages.
Interacting effects of feeding and stress on corticoid responses in fish were investigated in common carp fed 3.0% or 0.5% body mass (BM) which received no implant, a sham or a cortisol implant (250 mg/kg BM) throughout a 168 hour post-implant period (168 h-PI). At 12h-PI, cortisol implants elevated plasma cortisol, glucose and lactate. Plasma osmolality and ions remained stable, but cortisol increased gill and kidney Na(+)/K(+) ATPase (NKA) and H(+) ATPase activities. Gill NKA activities were higher at 3%-BM, whereas kidney H(+) ATPase activity was greater at 0.5%-BM. Cortisol induced liver protein mobilization and repartitioned liver and muscle glycogen. At 3%-BM, this did not increase plasma ammonia, reflecting improved excretion efficiency concomitant with upregulation of Rhesus glycoprotein Rhcg-1 in gill. Responses in glucocorticoid receptors (GR1/GR2) and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) to cortisol elevation were most prominent in kidney with increased expression of all receptors at 24 h-PI at 0.5%-BM, but only GR2 and MR at 0.5%-BM. In the liver, upregulation of all receptors occurred at 24 h-PI at 3%-BM, whilst only GR2 and MR were upregulated at 0.5%-BM. In the gill, there was a limited upregulation: GR2 and MR at 72 h-PI and GR1 at 168 h-PI at 3%-BM but only GR2 at 72 h-PI at 0.5%-BM. Thus cortisol elevation led to similar expression patterns of cortisol receptors in both feeding regimes, while feeding affected the type of receptor that was induced. Induction of corticoid receptors occurred simultaneously with increases in Rhcg-1 mRNA expression (gill) but well after NKA and H(+) ATPase activities increased (gill/kidney).