| Abstract: | The aim of this work was to determine whether changes in pituitary responsiveness to LRH could account for the effect of testosterone propionate (TP) on the gonadotrophic function of the pituitary in 4-day cyclic female rats. Doses of 250, 500 and 1000 ng LRH were injected ip on pro-oestrus at 15.30 h in rats either pre-treated with 5 mg TP on dioestrus II at 10.00 h or injected with 30 mg/kg pentobarbital (PB) at 13.00 h. LH release induced within 30 min by LRH was higher in PB than in TP-treated rats. Even by using 250 ng LRH full ovulation was observed on the morning of oestrus in PB-treated rats. On the other hand, only partial ovulation occurred whatever the dose of LRH used in TP-treated rats; a great number of luteinized follicles was shown to be constantly associated with post-ovulatory corpora lutea. While LRH caused a significant FSH release (30 min later) in TP-treated rats, no FSH release could be shown in PB-treated rats. The pituitary FSH content appeared to be decreased and the pituitary LH content remained unchanged while a sharp increase in both blood FSH and LH concentrations occurred following injection of 1000 ng LRH in TP-treated rats. Concomitantly a sharp decrease in the number of pituitary gonadotrophs (AB-PAS+) was observed. A significant decrease in the number of the small roundshaped PAS positive cells was also observed. The mechanisms whereby TP influences the function of the pituitary-ovarian axis are discussed in the light of these results. |
