THE EFFECT OF GONADOTROPHIC HORMONES ON YOUNG RAT OVARIES GROWN IN ORGAN CULTURE

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
SUMMARY: The influence of the anterior pituitary gland on young rat ovaries in culture was studied by explanting the two organs together. As controls ovaries were grown together with fragments of lung and kidney. The effect of the anterior pituitary was compared with that of the addition, in various concentrations, of pure FSH and of 'Gestyl' to the culture medium of organ cultures of ovaries. In control explants the number and size of the larger actively growing oocytes increased. The preservation of the germinal epithelium depended on the presence of the ovarian capsule and on the size of the periovarian space. The anterior pituitary stimulated the proliferation of follicular and stromal cells and induced the formation of more large follicles. This effect increased with pituitaries taken from older animals and when less medium was used for the cultures. In all concentrations used FSH caused the disappearance of the oocytes from growing and from primordial follicles. In the higher concentration used 'Gestyl' only induced hypertrophy in cells of the germinal epithelium in a few explants and was otherwise ineffective.