Administration of antiserum against ovine follicle-stimulating hormone or ovine luteinizing hormone at pro-poestrus in the rat: effects on follicular development during the oncoming cycle.

Cyclic rats received at 13.00 h on the day of pro-oestrus a single i.v. injection of one of the following antiserum preparations: AOLH (raised in rabbits against NIH-LH-S17); AOFSH (raised against NIH-FSH-S9) or pAOFSH (AOFSH preincubated with 195 mug NIH-LH-S16/ml). Rats were killed at day 1, 3 or 5 after injection, and the ovaries prepared for histological study of the antral follicles. After AOLH, ovulation and resumption of meiosis in oocytes in pre-ovulatory follicles were prevented but follicular development during the following cycle appeared undisturbed. After either AOFSH or pAOFSH, blockade of ovulation was never observed but the formation of antral follicles normally occurring between mid-pro-oestrus and mid-oestrus was postponed by about one day. The later development of antral follicles might reflect a supranormal compensatory secretion of endogenous gonadotrophin because the development does not occur in AOFSH- or pAOFSH-treated rats hypophysectomized 24 h after injection and subsequently treated with pregnant mare serum gonadotrophin in dosage approximating the amount of gonadotrophin secreted endogenously during dioestrus. The results imply (1) that the pre-ovulatory surge of LH release is not essential for follicular development during the oncoming cycle whereas (2) a surge of FSH release is required for the formation of the new cohort of antral follicles that is normally seen at the start of a new cycle.