Correlative surges of LHRH, LH and FSH in pituitary stalk plasma and systemic plasma of rat during proestrus. Effect of anesthetics.

An effective recovery procedure has been utilized for determining luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) concentrations in rat pituitary stalk plasma. With this new recovery protocol it was revealed that stalk plasma immunoreactive LHRH concentrations increased 5-fold to 206 pg/ml during proestrus(p less than 0.001) and decreased to diestrous levels during estrus. In contrast, the LHRH concentration in systemic plasma extracts remained unchanged throughout the estrous cycle and did not exceed 4 pg/ml. The stalk plasma: systemic plasma ratio increased from 12:1 at diestrus to 76:1 at proestrus; it then decreased to 22:1 at estrus (p less than 0.001). Correlative luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) surges of statistically significant magnitudes were observed in the systemic plasma of nonanesthetized cardiac-catheterized rats during proestrus. When administered before the onset of the critical period, Althesin and other anesthetic agents suppressed but did not completely inhibit the peripheral LH surge in cardiac-catheterized rats. The FSH surge was suppressed also but to a lesser degree. These results indicate that the brain triggers the preovulatory surge of LH and FSH via massive secretion of LHRH into the pituitary portal circulation. They also reveal that, aside from any dosage considerations, the type of anesthetic used and the time of administration in relation to the critical period, can significantly affect the magnitude of pituitary LH and FSH secretion.