Biol Reprod 2009 SSR Annual Meeting Abstracts
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Biology of Reproduction, Vol 18, 878-885, Copyright © 1978 by Society for the Study of Reproduction

A Comparison of the Effectiveness of FSH, LH and Prolactin in the Reinitiation of Testicular Function of Hypophysectomized and Estrogen-Treated Rats

P. C. SIVELLE 1, A. S. McNEILLY 2, , and P. M. COLLINS 3

1 Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, St. Bartholomew’s Medical College, Charterhouse Square, London, U. K.
2 MRC Unit of Reproductive Biology, 2 Forrest Road, Edinburgh, U. K.
3 Department of Biological Sciences, University of California Santa Barbara, California 931O6


The effects of FSH, LH and prolactin on the testes and accessory sex organs of hypophysectomized and estrogen-treated rats were compared. In both types of animals there was a similar reduction in the weights of the reproductive organs and in the numbers of resting and pachytene spermatocytes, although greater numbers of step 7 spermatids were lost in estrogen-treated rats. Levels of FSH, but not LH or prolactin, were reduced in estrogenized animals.

In rats hypophysectomized for 28 days, treatment with FSH increased the numbers of all germ cells examined while accessory sex organ weights were unchanged. Conversely, treatment with LH stimulated accessory sex organ weights, but not germ cell numbers. In estrogen-treated rats, FSH increased the numbers of step 7 spermatids and pachytene spermatocytes, but to a lesser extent than was found in hypophysectomized animals. In both hypophysectomized and estrogen-treated rats, prolactin inhibited the stimulatory effects of FSH. Injections of LH produced no change in accesory sex organ weights or germ cell numbers in estrogen-treated rats.

It is concluded that estradiol directly inhibits the action of gonadotrophins on the testis.

Note:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Professor D. Lacy for providing facilities for this work and Miss G. Nazeem for help with histology. We would also like to express our appreciation to the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism and Digestive Diseases, Bethesda, MD, for gifts of ovine FSH, LH and prolactin and for the preparations used in the radioimmunoassay of rat gonadotrophins and prolactin.

Submitted on September 6, 1977
Accepted on December 16, 1977






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Copyright © 1978 by the Society for the Study of Reproduction.