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HIROSHI NAGASAWA
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REIKO YANAI
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KOREHITO YAMANOUCHI
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SUMMARY

Intact female rats given twice daily injections of 1 mg human placental lactogen (HPL) showed continued dioestrous vaginal smears and their ovarian corpora lutea were found to be hypertrophied and functional. The serum prolactin level was significantly lower in these rats than in the controls at dioestrus as well as at pro-oestrus. Twice-daily injections of 0·5 or 2 mg HPL to ovariectomized rats decreased serum and pituitary levels of prolactin and increased hypothalamic activity of prolactin inhibiting hormone, although the effect was less at the lower dose. Human placental lactogen had no direct effect on pituitary prolactin secretion in vitro. These findings have demonstrated that HPL, like prolactin itself, inhibits prolactin secretion by acting indirectly on the pituitary through the hypothalamus.

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SAKAE KIKUYAMA
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HIROSHI NAGASAWA
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REIKO YANAI
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KOREHITO YAMANOUCHI
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SUMMARY

Female Sprague—Dawley rats were fed 6-propyl-2-thiouracil (PTU) in their diet during late pregnancy and lactation. The growth and gonadal development of their pups were inhibited and in females the day of vaginal opening and onset of oestrous cycles were delayed; thyroid glands were hypertrophied. Treatment of the pups with thyroxine largely reversed these changes. The effect on body weight persisted even after treatment with PTU had stopped. At 20 days of age, the anterior pituitary glands of the pups of PTU-treated mothers contained significantly less growth hormone (GH) and prolactin than those of normal pups of both sexes. These changes persisted at 60 days of age. If the pups of PTU-treated mothers were given thyroxine from day 1 to day 20 of age, pituitary GH and prolactin content on day 20 had returned towards normal values. Thyroid deficiency was found to suppress the synthesis and release of prolactin and the synthesis of GH by the pituitary in vitro.

These findings suggest that thyroxine influenced the maturation of the pituitary directly and/or through the hypothalamus and that thyroxine deficiency in early life brought about persistent alteration of the pituitary secretion of GH and prolactin.

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