Poult Sci 2008. 87:546-550. doi:10.3382/ps.2007-00284
© 2008 Poultry Science Association
PHYSIOLOGY, ENDOCRINOLOGY, AND REPRODUCTION |
Mesotocin Receptor Binding in Oviduct Uterus of the Hen Before and After Oviposition
T. Takahashi and
M. Kawashima1
Department of Biological Diversity and Resources, Gifu University, Yanagido, Gifu 501-1193, Japan
1 Corresponding author: kawasima{at}cc.gifu-u.ac.jp
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ABSTRACT
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[125I]mesotocin (MT) binding of membrane fractions of the oviduct uterus in laying hens and nonlaying hens was measured by the use of radioligand binding assay to elucidate the presence of MT receptor in the uterine tissue, and whether the binding to the receptor changes before and after oviposition. The uterine tissue of the hen was found to contain a specific [125I]MT binding component having properties of MT receptor (i.e., binding specificity, saturable binding, high affinity, and limited capacity). The equilibrium dissociation constant (Kd) was 0.46 ± 0.05 nM (x ± SEM; n = 4) in laying hens holding a hard-shelled egg in the uterus (shell gland) and 0.78 ± 0.02 nM (n = 4) in nonlaying hens. The maximum binding capacity (Bmax) was 0.28 ± 0.03 pmol/mg of protein (n = 4) in laying hens and 0.19 ± 0.01 pmol/mg of protein (n = 4) in nonlaying hens. The Kd value of the laying hens varied from 0.37 to 0.91 nM during an oviposition cycle showing a decrease 30 min before oviposition and an increase 4 h after oviposition. The Bmax value also varied from 0.15 to 0.38 pmol/mg of protein showing an increase 3 h before oviposition, a decrease 30 min before oviposition, and an increase 4 h after oviposition. In the nonlaying hen, both values were almost constant during a 24-h day. The changes in the binding affinity and capacity of MT receptor of the uterus may be related to oviposition in the hen.
Key Words: hen oviduct uterus mesotocin receptor receptor binding affinity receptor binding capacity oviposition
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INTRODUCTION
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Neurohypophysial hormones in the chicken are arginine vasotocin (AVT; Munsick et al., 1960) and mesotocin (MT; Acher et al., 1970). The AVT causes the contractions of the smooth muscles of the uterus in the hen (Munsick et al., 1960) through an increased binding to its receptor existing in the tissue due to an increased affinity (decrease in Kd value) of the receptor just before oviposition (Takahashi et al., 1994). Mesotocin also causes contractions of the uterine smooth muscle in vitro (Rzasa and Ewy, 1982). The specific binding component to MT has been reported to exist in the uterus (Takahashi et al., 1993), but it is not elucidated whether the binding component has the binding specificity to MT. If the MT relates to oviposition in hens, it is expected that the binding of receptor for MT in laying hens differs from in nonlaying hens, and changes during oviposition cycle, as the findings in the uterine AVT receptor reported earlier (Takahashi et al., 1992, 1994). The present experiment was performed to elucidate the existence of mesotocin receptor in uterine tissues and to elucidate whether the MT binding to the receptor changes relative to oviposition.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS
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Animals
White Leghorn hens (20 mo of age; 1.8 to 2.2 kg of BW) laying 5 or 6 eggs in a sequence with a 1-d pause between sequences for more than 2 wk and those that had not laid an egg for at least 10-d prior to experiments were used as laying hens and nonlaying (molting) hens, respectively. The hens were kept under 14 h (0500 to 1900 h) light per day with feed (15% CP; 2,800 kcal of ME; Japan Feeding Standard for Poultry, 1992) and water provided for ad libitum consumption. The ovarian weight of nonlaying hens was less than 8.8 g, and whole oviduct weight was less than 11.2 g, and the serum concentration of ovarian steroid hormones measured by a routine radioimmunoassay (Shodono et al., 1975) were less than 323 pM (estradiol-17β), 337 pM (progesterone), and 319 pM (testosterone), respectively.
The first experiment was performed to examine the binding specificity, affinity, and capacity of MT binding component of the uterus. The laying hens (4 birds) holding a hard-shelled egg in the uterus and the nonlaying hens (4 birds) were killed by decapitation at 0900 h of a day, and the uterus of the oviduct was excised. The weight of uterus of the laying hens was 13.38 ± 0.46 g (x ± SEM, n = 4) and was significantly higher (P < 0.001) than that of the nonlaying hens (4.89 ± 0.55 g, n = 4).
A second experiment was performed to examine changes in the binding affinity and capacity before and after oviposition. The time before oviposition was estimated from the oviposition time observed before the experiment. The clock time of oviposition of the first egg of the laying sequence was 0654 h ± 4 min (x ± SEM, n = 50). The uterus was obtained from the laying hens at 5 different times (16, 11, 6, 3 h, and 30 min) before oviposition of the first egg of sequence and at other 5 different times (within 5 min, 2, 4, 5, and 7 h) after oviposition of the first egg of sequence (6 birds at each time), and also from the nonlaying hens at 8 different times corresponding to the time of sampling in the laying hens during a 24-h day (6 birds at each time). The myometrium of the uterus was used for the preparation of plasma membrane fractions.
Preparation of Plasma Membrane Fractions
The method of preparation of membrane fractions for the uterine tissue was the same as reported earlier (Takahashi et al., 1992). All steps were performed at 4°C. Uterine tissues were rinsed with ice-cold Tris-EDTA buffer [TE; 50 mM Tris (Kishida Chemical Co., Ltd., Osaka, Japan)-HCl, 2 mM EDTA (Nacalai Tesque Inc., Kyoto, Japan), pH 7.4] containing 0.25 M sucrose. The tissues were blotted with a filter paper, weighed, and homogenized in the same buffer (5 vol/wt) using the Ultra-Turrax homogenizer (Type 18-10, Ika Labortechnik, Janke & Kunkel GmbH & Co KG, Staufen, Germany). The homogenate was filtered through gauze. The filtrate was centrifuged (1,000 x g, 10 min) and the supernatant was obtained. The precipitate was rehomogenized in the same buffer and recentrifuged. Two supernatants were combined and centrifuged at 30,000 x g for 30 min. The precipitate was suspended in the 0.25 M sucrose-TE buffer (5 vol/wt) with a Potter-Elvehjem type glass-Teflon homogenizer. The suspension was gently poured on equal volume of TE buffer containing 1.0 M sucrose and centrifuged at 90,000 x g for 90 min in a RPS-25 swinging rotor (Hitachi Koki Co., Ltd., Hitachinaka, Japan). The interface fraction of the 2 buffers was obtained and washed twice with TE buffer not containing sucrose by centrifugations (30,000 x g, 30 min). The final precipitate was suspended in TE buffer (0.5 vol/wt) and used as the plasma membrane fraction after determinations of the protein concentration by the method of Lowry et al. (1951) using BSA (Seikagaku Corp., Tokyo, Japan) as a standard. The amount of protein in the membrane fraction was 0.35 ± 0.02 (x ± SEM, n = 4) mg/g of tissue in laying hens and 0.36 ± 0.01 (n = 4) mg/g of tissue in nonlaying hens, respectively.
Binding Assay
The labeling of MT with 125I was performed by the Iodogen (Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO) method (Takahashi et al., 1993). Specific activity of [125I]MT was 1,886 to 2,272 Ci/mmol determined by the method of Copeland et al. (1979). In the binding assay, polypropylene tubes used were pretreated overnight at 4°C with TE buffer containing 1% BSA. Aliquots of the membrane fraction (10 µg of protein/200 µL per tube) were incubated at 30°C for 5 h with [125I]MT (0.05 to 1.6 nM) in the presence (for nonspecific bindings) or absence (for total bindings) of 1 µM of unlabeled MT in a total volume of 300 µL. To examine the binding specificity, unlabeled MT (Bachem Inc., Torrance, CA), AVT (Bachem Inc.), chicken luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone-I [cLHRH-I: Gln8-GnRH (Peninsula Laboratories Inc., Belmont, CA)], chicken LHRH-II [His,8 Trp,7 Tyr,8-GnRH and chicken angiotensin-II [cAngiotensin-II: Val5-angiotensin-II (Bachem Inc.)] were used as competitors. Concentrations of unlabeled peptides used were 0.006 to 6 µM in MT and AVT, and 0.06 to 6 µM in cLHRH-I, cLHRH-II, and cAngiotensin-II. Bound and free ligands were separated by centrifugation (10,000 x g, 20 min, 4°C). The radioactivity of the precipitate (bound ligand) was measured by a gamma counter (Packard Cobra, Packard Instrument Co., Meriden, CT). The counting efficiency was 74.1 to 84.4%. Specific bindings were obtained by subtracting the nonspecific binding from the total binding and expressed as moles per milligram of protein. The equilibrium dissociation constant (Kd) and the maximum binding capacity (Bmax) were determined by the method of Scatchard (1949).
Preliminary Experiments
Relationships of specific [125I]MT binding to presence of cations (2 to 8 mM of Mg2+ or Ca2+) or a chelator (1 to 10 mM EDTA), incubation time (
to 8 h) and temperature (4 and 30°C), and protein concentration (2.5 to 30 µg per tube) were examined. The specific [125I]MT binding was not changed by the presence of Mg2+ and Ca2+ and increased by the presence of EDTA (1 to 10 mM; Figure 1
). The binding at 30°C increased during the first 4 h of incubation, and then reached a plateau up to 8 h, but a remarkable increase was not observed at 4°C (Figure 2
). A linear increase in the specific binding with the increase in the protein concentration from 2.5 to 30 µg per tube was observed when incubated at 30°C for 5 h (Figure 3
). Based on these findings, the following experimental conditions were used in following experiments: presence of 2 mM EDTA, 30°C for 5 h incubation, and 10 µg of protein per tube.

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Figure 2. Time course of the specific [125I]mesotocin (MT) binding in the plasma membrane fraction of the oviduct uterus of laying hens. Samples (10 µg of protein per tube) were incubated at 4 ( ) or 30 ()°C for various hours with 0.6 nM [125I]MT in the absence or presence of 1 µM unlabeled MT, and the specific [125I]MT binding was measured. Each point represents the mean of 3 separate pools of samples, and the vertical bars represent SEM.
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Figure 3. Relationship of specific [125I]mesotocin (MT) binding to the protein concentration in the plasma membrane fraction of the oviduct uterus of laying hens. Samples (2.5 to 30 µg of protein per tube) were incubated at 30°C for 5 h with 0.6 nM [125I]MT in the absence or presence of 1 µM unlabeled MT, and the specific [125I]MT binding was measured. Each point represents the mean of 3 separate pools of samples, and the vertical bars represent SEM.
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Statistical Analyses
A half-maximal inhibition (ID50) of the [125I]AVT binding was estimated by the use of a log-logit linear regression (Finney, 1964). The data were analyzed by 1-way ANOVA (Snedecor and Cochran, 1967). When significant effects were found at 5% level, Students t-test was used to assess statistical significance between 2 means and Newman-Keuls multiple range test (Snedecor and Cochran, 1967) was used to compare means of more than 2 groups.
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RESULTS
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Binding Specificity
The [125I]MT binding was markedly reduced by the presence of a 100- to 10,000-fold M excess of unlabeled MT but was not reduced by the presence of an equivalent M excess of unlabeled cLHRH-I, cLHRH-II, and cAngiotensin-II (Figure 4
). A 10,000-fold M excess of AVT reduced the binding to about 50% (Figure 4
). The half-maximal inhibition (ID50) value calculated from the data of dose-inhibition curve was 14 nM for MT and 8,458 nM for AVT.
Binding Affinity and Capacity
The specific [125I]MT binding increased when increasing amounts of [125I]MT were added (i.e., when increasing amounts of free [125I]MT), and was saturable at about 1.0 nM (Figure 5
). Scatchard analysis revealed a linear relationship between the amount of specific binding and the ratio of specific binding to free [125I]MT (Figure 5
), indicating 1 single class of binding sites. The Kd and Bmax values obtained from each 4 birds in laying hens and nonlaying hens are shown in Table 1
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Table 1. Equilibrium dissociation constant (Kd) and maximum binding capacity (Bmax) of mesotocin (MT) receptors in the plasma membrane fraction of the oviduct uterus (shell gland) of laying and nonlaying hens1
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Changes in Kd and Bmax Values
The Kd value decreased 30 min before expected oviposition and increased 4 h after oviposition (Figure 6
). The Bmax value increased 3 h before expected oviposition, decreased 30 min before oviposition and just after oviposition, and then increased 4 h after oviposition. In nonlaying hens, neither Kd nor Bmax changed during a 24-h day.
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DISCUSSION
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Membrane fractions of oviduct uterus of the hen showed to contain a binding component having the properties of a receptor [i.e., binding specificity (Figure 4
), saturable binding (Figure 5
), as well as high affinity and limited capacity (Figure 5
)]. The Kd expressed as moles per liter, which is an index of the binding affinity (the smaller the higher), was of the order of 10–10 and was similar to that reported for the MT receptor in the kidney (Takahashi et al., 1996) or the AVT receptors in the uterus (Takahashi et al., 1992) or the vagina (Takahashi et al., 1998) of the hen. The binding affinity and the binding capacity of the uterine MT receptor found in the present study were higher in laying hens than in nonlaying hens. The binding affinity and binding capacity of the uterine MT receptor in laying hens showed a change during a period before and after oviposition, but no change was found in nonlaying hens during a 24-h period (Figure 6
). These results suggest that the MT may relate to the oviposition system in the uterus of hens. The Bmax value of the uterine MT receptor in laying hens increased 3 h before oviposition. A similar change in the Bmax value was also reported in the AVT receptor of the uterus in laying hens (Takahashi et al., 1994). In contrast within 30 min before oviposition, changes in the Kd and Bmax values of MT receptor differed from that reported on the uterine AVT receptor. The Kd and Bmax values of the MT receptor showed a decrease 30 min before oviposition, whereas that of the AVT receptor showed a decrease just before oviposition. (Takahashi et al., 1994). The decrease in the Kd value of the receptor indicates an increase in the binding affinity, which may cause an increase in the hormonal action (Takahashi et al., 1994). It seems likely that the MT action increases before the increase in that of AVT in the oviduct uterus within 30 min before oviposition. Therefore the role of MT may be different from that of the AVT in the uterus. The MT is reported to cause the contraction of the uterine smooth muscle in vitro (Rzasa and Ewy, 1982). If the uterine MT receptor binding is concerned in the contraction of the uterine muscles, the change in the binding affinity and the binding capacity found in the present study may be related to the process of oviposition in a different role from the AVT.
Received for publication July 24, 2007.
Accepted for publication October 26, 2007.
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