Identification of relaxins in porcine follicular fluid and in the ovary of the immature sow

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Abstract
Relaxin was measured by radioimmunoassay in follicular fluid from sows which were of different reproductive states. In non-pregnant animals, follicular fluid relaxin values ranged from 0.23-666 ng/ml. For pregnant animals the range was 172.6-32,707 ng/ml and for sows with polycystic ovaries this range was 5.0-2800 ng/ml. For polycystic ovaries the correlation coefficient between the diameter of the follicle and relaxin concentration in the respective fluid was 0.74. Gel filtration of follicular fluid from a pregnant sow or one with polycystic ovaries revealed 3 species of relaxin, of MW 27,500, 19,000 and 6000. Relaxin was extracted from 1 kg of ovaries collected from prepubertal pigs and gel filtration studies indicated the presence of large MW species in addition to a molecule of .apprx. 6000. The corpus luteum is evidently not the sole source of relaxin in the pig.