Peripubertal changes in the nature of LH

Administration of pregnant mare serum gonadotrophin (PMSG) to peripubertal rats, aged 27 days, induces ovulation provided the animals weigh more than 60 g at the time of the injection. In an attempt to determine whether the apparent immaturity of the ovaries in smaller rats is associated with an inability of the pituitary gland to secrete LH, the biological and immunological properties of LH in peripubertal PMSG-treated rats were examined. A single injection of PMSG caused a marked hypersecretion of LH in rats aged 27 days. The LH in the plasma of rats weighing more than 60 g was active in both the radioimmunoassay and the cytochemical bioassay but that in smaller rats was active only in the former. Plasma from both groups of rats stimulated the release of testosterone from dispersed Leydig cells. Luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone stimulated the secretion, in vitro, of immunoreactive, cytochemically active LH by pituitary tissue from rats weighing over 60 g. The LH released in vitro from tissue from the smaller animals, like that in their plasma, was active in the radioimmunoassay but not in the cytochemical system. The results suggest that an abrupt change in the nature of LH occurs at puberty and that ovulatory cycles commence only when the pituitary gland secretes the adult form of LH with a full spectrum of biological activity.