Total estrogen receptor (Re) and total progestin receptor (Rp) were measured in the cytosol and nuclear fractions from hamster deciduomal tissue and decidual cell cultures. Correlation of serum steroid (estradiol and progesterone) and deciduomal receptor profiles revealed a significant loss of Re during the first four days of decidualization that was not attributable to changes in serum steroid levels. A decidual cell-tissue culture system was used to study the receptor's recovery response to progesterone withdrawal. Decidual cells were plated and grown in Ham's F12/Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium with 5% horse serum supplemented with insulin, transferrin, selenium and progesterone (10 ng/ml). Within 48 h of culture large, multinucleate decidual cells were observed by phase microscopy. At 72 h of culture in medium containing progesterone, only Rp was detectable in decidual cells. Re was not detectable (less than 200 fmol/mg DNA) in either cytosol or nuclei from cells maintained in the presence of progesterone. However, when progesterone was deleted from the medium, cytosol Re recovered progressively from 8 h to 16 h of culture. Progesterone withdrawal also caused parallel increases in cytosol and nuclear Rp, and estradiol treatment (2 ng/ml) in combination with progesterone withdrawal further enhanced Rp levels in decidual cell cultures. These results with cultured decidual cells demonstrate that progesterone down-regulates Re and Rp, Re recovers rapidly upon progesterone withdrawal, and the Re system is competent to respond to estrogen action in terms of Rp induction. We used the density-shift method to determine that progestin increases the turnover of nuclear Re in hamster decidual cells within 3 h. Hamster decidual cells were isolated from the endometrium and cultured in progesterone-free medium containing normal amino acids (1H, 12C, 14N) for 2 days. Confluent monolayers of cells were exposed to 1 nM estradiol (E2) for 1 h to maximize the amount of occupied Re in the nuclear fraction. Then, at time 0, cells were transferred to medium supplemented with dense (2H, 13C, 15N) amino acids and either 1 nM E2 or E2 plus 100 nM progesterone. After Re was labeled with dense amino acids for 1, 3, 6 and 9 h, nuclear Re was extracted with 10 mM pyridoxal -5' phosphate and labeled with 125I-iodoestradiol (5 nM). Two radioactive peaks representing preexisting and newly synthesized Re were separated by sucrose density-gradient centrifugation. The halflife of nuclear Re in decidual cells was 3.7 h when cells were treated with E2 alone.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)