Endothelin (ET)-2 plays a crucial role in ovarian ovulation in mammals. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α-mediated transcriptional activation contributes to the increased expression of ET-2 gene in response to hCG in rat ovarian granulosa cells (GCs) during gonadotropin-induced superovulation. By real-time RT-PCR analysis, ET-2 mRNA expression was found to significantly increase in cultured ovarian GCs after treatment with hCG, or even N-carbobenzoxyl-L-leucinyl-L-leucinyl-L-norvalinal (MG-132), while this increased ET-2 mRNA expression could also be blocked by ferrous ammonium sulfate (FAS) under human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) treatment. Further analysis also found that these changes of ET-2 mRNA were consistent with HIF-1α expression or HIF-1 activity, and HIF-1α inhibitor echinomycin inhibited ovulation in rats. Taken together, these results indicate that ET-2 is transcriptionally activated by hCG through HIF-1α-mediated mechanism in GCs. This HIF-1α-induced transcriptional activation may be one of the important mechanisms mediating the increase of ET-2 expression in GCs during the gonadotropin-induced mammalian ovulatory process in vivo.
