Gonadocrinins: Peptides in Ovarian Follicular Fluid Stimulating the Secretion of Pituitary Gonadotropins*

Abstract

A newly discovered small peptide purified from rat follicular fluid stimulates the pituitary to release FSH and LH in vitro as well as in vivo. Dialysates of crude acid extracts of ovarian follicular tissue and fluid from rats pretreated with PMS gonadotropin stimulate the secretion of both LH and FSH, but not PRL, GH, or TSH, in a pituitary monolayer culture system. This stimulating factor, named gonadocrinin for operational facility, is smaller than 3500 daltons; its biological activity disappears after treatment with trypsin. Gonadocrinin is not recognized by two antisera binding the decapeptide LRF even though D-Phe²,D-Trp⁶-LRF, an LRF analog antagonist, competitively inhibits the activity of ovarian gonadocrinin. Cultured rat granulosa cells also secrete substances with gonadocrinin activity in vitro, indicating that the granulosa cells probably are in vivo the source of gonadocrinin. A crude preparation of gonadocrinin given iv to rats on the second aday of diestrus induced secretion of LH comparable to that produced by a 250-ng LRF injection. Gonadocrinin has chemical characteristics different from those of LRF. When purified gonadocrinin or LRF was applied to an identical isocratic high pressure liquid chromatography system, LRF was eluted at a position different from that of gonadocrinin, indicating that, chemically, gonadocrinin is not identical to the hypothalamic decapeptide, LRF.