The pleiotropic physiological effects of relaxin are determined by the signalling pathway profile activated in target cells

Abstract

Relaxin is a two‐chain hormone, related to insulin, that mediates pleiotropic effects in physiological systems. The relaxin receptor RXFP1, is a G‐protein coupled receptor that increases cAMP accumulation via a biphasic pathway when expressed in HEK293T cells: initially RXFP1 couples to Gα s and Gα oB , to increase and modulate cAMP respectively, but with time recruits coupling to Gα i3 and activates a Gβγ‐PI3K‐PKCζ pathway to further increase cAMP. However, the signalling transduction mechanisms activated by this hormone in physiological target cells and tissues are unclea..