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Biology of Reproduction, Vol 15, 173-178, Copyright © 1976 by Society for the Study of Reproduction

The Effect of Adrenalectomy on Ovulation and Follicular Development in the Rat

R. D. PEPPLER 1, and JOHN J. JACOBS 1

1 Departments of Anatomy and Obstetrics and Gynecology, Louisiana State University Medical Center, New Orleans, Louisiana 70112


Virgin, female Holtzman rats were used in two experiments. In the first experiment, cycling animals were bilaterally adrenalectomized (ADX) and/or unilaterally ovariectomized (ULO) at 53-57 days of age at metestrus. Rats were allowed to cycle for one estrous cycle and killed at the next metestrus. The second experiment consisted of similar groups, but these animals were allowed to cycle for 30 days before being killed. At autopsy, body and organ weights were recorded; ova were flushed from the oviducts and counted.

In the first experiment, ADX rats ovulated fewer eggs per ovary than controls (3.5 ± 0.3 vs. 4.6 ± 0.3). Compensatory ovulation from the remaining ovary occurred in both ADX-ULO (7.4 ± 1.1 eggs per ovary) and ULO (8.7 ± 0.6 eggs per ovary) animals. Similar results occurred in the second experiment.

Three animals from each of the four groups in the first experiment were killed at the subsequent proestrus to examine follicular development in the ovaries. Adrenalectomy had no effect on the number of follicles larger than 295 µm but did decrease the number of follicles larger than 448 µm which would normally have been ovulated within that estrous cycle. ADX-ULO and ULO animals had a significant increase in both the mean number of follicles larger than 295 µm and the number larger than 448 µm.

Collectively, these data indicate that the absence of the adrenal gland reduced ovulation number, but does not affect compensatory mechanisms in the hemicastrate rat.

Note:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors are grateful to J. Canale, S. Hemelt, C. Christensen and E. Schwartz for the technical assistance during portions of this study.

Submitted on February 12, 1976
Accepted on April 19, 1976






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Copyright © 1976 by the Society for the Study of Reproduction.