Simultaneous indirect activity measurements of GH and PRL genes in the same, living mammosomatotrope.

Dynamic intracellular processes in endocrine cells are usually controlled by the coordinated modulation of two or more functionally related genes. Attempts to gain a more complete understanding of these processes would be facilitated greatly by a method enabling activity measurements of two genes at the same time. Here we describe how we developed such a system and used it to determine indirectly whether individual, living pituitary cells could concurrently express both the growth hormone (GH) and prolactin (PRL) genes. Our results demonstrate that coexpression of these genes is indeed possible. Moreover, our findings provide a general paradigm for future "real-time" analysis of other interrelated genes involved in the regulation of endocrine processes.