Altered ovarian responsiveness to gonadotropins in neonatally irradiated immature rats

Female rats which were exposed to a single low dose of gamma irradiation (6R or 15R) at the age of 8 days produce smaller litters when mature than untreated controls. In order to study the possibility that such an impaired reproductive performance could result from a reduced ovulation rate, neonatally irradiated females were treated with PMSG (12 iu/rat) at the age of 26 days. Another group of rats, similarly treated, was further injected with hCG (5 iu/rat) 48 hours later. Animals were killed 48, 55, 60 and 72 hours after PMSG treatment or 72 and 120 after hCG injection. The results indicated that PMSG treatment increased the ovarian weight of non-irradiated controls as well as of irradiated rats and in all animals induced a proestrus like profile of LH. Only a combined treatment of PMSG and hCG resulted in ovulation and corpora lutea formation with significantly increased numbers of corpora lutea in the ovaries of the irradiated rats. The latter was associated with higher progesterone plasma levels not correlated to the number of corpora lutea. The gradual decrease in the number of ovarian binding sites for hCG with increased radiation dose and the increased association constant in the 15R group could not explain the increased sensitivity of the ovary to exogenous gonadotropins which results from neonatal exposure to low doses of gamma irradiation.