Roles of catecholamine at the preoptic region in the regulation of cyclic ovulation and gonadotropin.

Experiments were designed to see how a transplantation of newborn norepinephrine (NE) neurons from A-6 groups or dopamine (DA) neurons from A-10 groups in the third ventricle at the level of the preoptic region affected the vaginal oestrous cycle and gonadotropin secretion in the female rat. Sixty-two rats that had tissues in contact with the preoptic region were evaluated as having surviving transplants by histological examination after sacrifice. The rats that had surviving NE-neuron transplants frequently showed prolongation of oestrus during the 70-day study period, indicating that ovulation was severely impaired in these rats. However, after ovariectomy, they showed a pulsatile secretion of LH with a remarkably large amplitude. The DA-neuron transplants sustained the oestrous cycle unchanged, but increased blood levels of FSH prior to the ovulatory secretion of gonadotropin. Pulsatile LH secretion was not affected. Sham and cerebellum control rats did not show any significant changes in the oestrous cycle. The results suggest that the NE-neuron transplants at the preoptic region somehow inhibit gonadotropin secretion in intact rats, whereas they facilitate it in ovariectomized rats. The DA-neuron transplants appear to exert facilitatory effects on FSH secretion in intact rats.