ABSTRACT

The sequence of appearance of FSH and LH receptors, and response of cyclic AMP (cAMP) production to these hormones and cholera toxin, were studied in the fetal and neonatal rat ovary. Specific binding of radio-labelled human (h)FSH and chorionic gonadotrophin (CG) to ovarian homogenates was first detectable on day 7 of life. The content of FSH receptors per ovary increased tenfold between days 7 and 16, and that of LH receptors 27-fold. A significant response of cAMP production in vitro to FSH appeared on day 4 of life, but no significant effect of hCG on cAMP was achieved until day 7. In contrast, cholera toxin had a marked effect on cAMP production by day 17 of fetal life. Although both FSH and LH receptors were detectable in the neonatal rat ovary by day 7, the present findings indicate that the FSH responsiveness of the ovary appears earlier than that of LH. The post-receptor machinery of cAMP production is already functional in the fetal ovary as shown by the experiments with cholera toxin. The appearance of the receptor may therefore be the last link in the ontogeny of the gonadotrophin signal transduction system in the ovary. To study the hormone dependence of the appearance of gonadotrophin responsiveness, neonatal female rats were treated on days 1–6 or 1–9 of life with a potent gonadotrophin-releasing hormone antagonist, and killed on the following day. In both treatment groups, the pituitary LH and FSH contents were suppressed. The body weights remained unaltered, but ovarian weights decreased significantly during both periods of treatment (days 1–6,26·1%, P < 0·05; days 1–9,54·0%, P <0·001). No difference in basal or FSH-stimulated cAMP production was achieved by antagonist treatment for the first 6 days of life. The basal and hCG-stimulated rates of cAMP production per ovary were reduced in animals treated for 9 days (P <0·01), but the FSH-stimulated cAMP production remained unaffected. Hence, whereas the responsiveness to FSH seems to develop in the absence of normal gonadotrophin secretion, a causal relationship between normal gonadotrophin levels and the appearance of LH/hCG responsiveness is apparent in the neonatal rat ovary.

Journal of Endocrinology (1990) 127, 297–303