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Increase in Pituitary Levels of Luteinizing Hormone and Follicle-Stimulating Hormone after Pinealectomy in Both Intact and Castrated Male Rats

Department of Physiology, University of La Laguna Medical School Tenerife, Spain

Requests for reprints should be addressed to: Rafael Alonso, Laboratory of Neuroendocrine Regulation, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Room 56-245, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139.

Abstract

Twenty-eight-day-old male Wistar rats were pinealectomized and/or castrated. Animals were killed 26 days later and anterior pituitaries were dissected out, weighed, and their content of LH and FSH measured by RIA. Pinealectomized rats showed higher body weights than sham-operated animals, which suggests an inhibitory influence of the pineal on growth. The weights of pituitaries were increased by both pinealectomy and castration. However, in pinealectomized rats, but not in castrated, the elevated pituitary weights seemed to be due to the high body weights of those animals. The pituitary content and concentration of LH and the content of FSH were increased by pinealectomy in both intact and castrated rats. This finding may suggest that the pineal gland exerts an inhibitory action on the hypothalamic-pituitary axis that seems to be independent of the testicular function. (Endocrinology 102: 1534, 1978)

Received July 11, 1977.