Differences in action of LH and FSH on the formation of cyclic AMP in the prepubertal rat ovary.

The actions of LH (NIH-LH-B8) and FSH (NIH-FSH-S9) on the cyclic AMP (cAMP) system in ovaries of 23-24 day old rats have been analyzed. An intravenous injection of LH increased ovarian cAMP levels in vivo after only 20 seconds. Maximal cAMP levels were seen after 15 min. Addition of LH or FSH in vitro to the isolated ovaries produced dose dependent increases of cAMP in the tissue as well as in the incubation medium. Low concentrations of LH caused a release of cAMP into the incubation medium without any detectable change in the tissue levels. The levels of cAMP in the incubation media for all concentrations of FSH were lower than the tissue levels, whereas for LH the opposite was found. In time-course experiments where the concentrations of LH (10 mug/ml) and FSH (100 mug/ml) were chosen to give similar tissue levels of cAMP, the release of the cyclic nucleotide into the incubation medium was approximately 2-3 times greater for LH than for FSH at the time periods studied (5-240 min). When LH and FSH were tested together in high concentrations, their effects were additive. When the ovaries were first incubated with FSH for 120 min followed by an incubation with LH, the stimulatory effect of LH was considerably reduced. When the order of the incubations was reversed, however, LH did not change the response to FSH. The results show that both LH and FSH have intrinsic effects on the cAMP system in the prepubertal rat ovary, but that the effects of the two gonadotrophins are not identical.