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SUMMARY The concentration of prolactin in serum after oestrogen and progesterone injection into spayed rats was measured by radioimmunoassay. After a single injection of 5 μg oestradiol benzoate (OB) into long-term ovariectomized rats, serum prolactin concentrations showed a circadian rhythm with high levels in the afternoon and almost no changes in the morning. Peaks of prolactin occurred 2, 3 and 4 days after the injection. Below a dose of 1 μg OB, the response was dose-dependent, but the response was then maximal. In spayed rats primed with 5 μg OB, the injection of 2 mg progesterone 2, 3 or 4 days later resulted in a significant increase in serum prolactin. This response, in contrast to that of oestrogen, occurred in the morning and in the evening and was found to be dose-dependent. The rise in serum prolactin after injection of 1 mg progesterone also showed a close relationship to the priming dose of OB. Progesterone had no effect in spayed, untreated animals. Maximal levels of prolactin were attained 3–4 h after the s.c. injection of progesterone. The release of prolactin which can be induced either by OB or by progesterone was blocked by the administration of progesterone injected 1 day before the expected release would occur. These results indicate that progesterone exerts both facilitatory and inhibitory effects on prolactin secretion. Male rats were found to be less sensitive to the ovarian steroid treatment. It is suggested that oestrogen could be responsible for the rise in prolactin observed at pro-oestrus and progesterone for the increase in prolactin in pseudopregnancy and pregnancy.

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SUMMARY In immature female rats serum luteinizing hormone (LH) concentration, as measured by radioimmunoassay, was found to be higher at 10 or 15 days of age than thereafter. Animals ovariectomized soon after birth or at 5 days of age showed a significant rise in serum LH levels 10 days later. A positive feedback effect on LH secretion was observed on the day following a single injection of oestradiol benzoate (OB) in 28-day-old rats but not in younger animals. However, in animals primed with OB a second dose of OB 2 days later resulted in a significant rise in serum LH levels even in rats of 22 days of age. Progesterone (1 mg) injected 3 days after the injection of a single dose of OB induced, a few hours later, a significant rise in serum LH concentration. This effect was observed from the 22nd day of age but not in younger animals. The magnitude of the response to progesterone, as revealed by the serum LH levels, sharply decreased at the time of puberty. It is concluded that the mechanisms responsible for the tonic release of LH are ready to function at the time of birth or shortly thereafter, while those involved in the phasic release mature around 22 days of age.

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Plasma LH was determined in ovariectomized-oestrogen treated rats by the ovarian ascorbic acid method. The elevated plasma LH of the spayed animals was found to be depressed on the third day after a single injection of 20 μg oestradiol benzoate. Progesterone (2 mg) injected on the third day after oestrogen induced an increase in plasma LH a few hours later. This effect of progesterone was evident only when blood was drawn in the afternoon, but not when blood was drawn in the morning. In hypophysectomized animals progesterone failed to change plasma LH activity. On the afternoon of the fourth day after the injection of oestrogen, the plasma LH returned to the elevated preinjection levels. However, when progesterone was administered on the 3rd day these elevated levels were markedly depressed. It is concluded that progesterone has a biphasic effect, first stimulating and then inhibiting, on the release of LH.