Opening of glibenclamide-sensitive K+ channels in follicular cells promotes Xenopus oocyte maturation.

The vasorelaxing K+ channel opener P1060 (a pinacidil analog), gonadotropins, and cAMP were shown to activate a glibenclamide-sensitive 86Rb+ efflux from fully grown follicle-enclosed Xenopus oocytes. Glibenclamide-sensitive K+ channels are located in follicular cells. Glibenclamide (i) depressed the gonadotropin- but not the progesterone-induced maturation and (ii) did not significantly modify progesterone production in oocytes exposed to Xenopus gonadotropin. In follicle-enclosed oocytes, the opener P1060 very significantly enhanced the oocyte sensitivity to progesterone. This increased sensitivity to the hormone induced by the K+ channel opener was reversed by glibenclamide. Thus these results suggest that the opening of glibenclamide-sensitive K+ channels in follicular cells by gonadotropins (and other activators of this channel) induces a hyperpolarization in the oocyte that greatly facilitates maturation by increasing the oocyte sensitivity to progesterone.