A theca cell is a somatic cell in the layers surrounding the granulosa cell compartment of a growing ovarian follicle. The steroid-producing thecal population responds to luteinizing hormone and supplies androgens that can become substrates for aromatase in granulosa cells. This division of biochemical work helps connect two cell populations to ovarian estrogen production.[ref]
Anatomy and Physiology 2e by J. Gordon Betts and others. Section27.2: follicular theca and granulosa endocrine functions
A 1995 experiment cultured human theca cells for four days and measured release of the androgen androstenedione. Insulin and related growth-factor treatments altered steroid output, with stronger effects in the presence of luteinizing hormone, while the tested treatments did not stimulate cell growth. The experiment separated a change in endocrine activity from a simple increase in cell number.[ref]
Metabolic regulation of androgen production by human thecal cells in vitro by R. Nahum and others. Abstract: serum-free cultures, androstenedione assay and growth measurements
An illustrative pathway therefore follows substrate rather than treating every ovarian cell as interchangeable: production of an androgen in one population can support conversion to an estrogen in another. Measuring the final product alone does not identify which upstream population changed its activity.
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