Spontaneous and electrochemically stimulated changes in plasma LH in the female rat following hypothalamic...

Plasma LH levels in adult female rats were studied by radioimmunoassay 6 weeks after making frontal cuts (FC) at the optic chiasm with Halász knives of various sizes. Cuts made with a small knife (radius 1.3 mm) permitted a spontaneous rise in plasma LH during proestrus from a mean of 96 +/- 25 ng/ml at 14:00 h to 545 +/- 207 ng/ml at 18:00 h in 13 rats. Seven of the latter, with a mean plasma LH of 967 +/- 281 ng/ml at 18:00 h exhibited tubal ova at hemicastration (hemi-ovx) the following morning. In a similar experiment 6 FC females lesioned with a 1.5 mm knife had plasma LH levels of 53 +/- 7 ng/ml at 14:00 h, but showed neither detectable changes at 2 h intervals through 20:00 h nor ovulation at hemi-ovx. Similar results were obtained in 13 rats deafferented with a 2.0 mm knife. Nine weeks after FC and 3 weeks following hemi-ovx all animals were given pentobarbital (32 mg/kg i.p.) at 13:30 h and stimulated bilaterally in the medial preoptic area (MPO) passing 20 muA anodal DC X 60 sec through concentric bipolar steel electrodes placed 0.8 mm from the midline. All 3 groups of FC animals showed increases in plasma LH to comparable levels (range: 197 +/- 45-357 +/- 156 ng/ml) 1 h after stimulation. Electrochemical stimulation sites extended lateral to the cut locations on at least one side in all animals. The results of these studies suggest that chronically (9 week) deafferented female rats have the capacity to release pituitary LH in response to MPO electrochemical stimulation in spite of retrochiasmatic deafferentation, but that the ovaries of the persistent estrus rat are unresponsive to these amounts of circulating LH.