Luteotropic Action of Decidual Tissue in the Pregnant Rat
It has been reported that the rat placenta possesses luteotropic activity as early as Day 8 of pregnancy (Alloiteau, 1957; Kisch and Shelesnyak, 1967; Morishige and Rothchild, 1974). Since rat placental lactogen is undetectable at this stage of pregnancy by either bioassay or radioreceptor assay (Al...
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Published in | Biology of reproduction Vol. 23; no. 3; pp. 507 - 512 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
Society for the Study of Reproduction
01.10.1980
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | It has been reported that the rat placenta possesses luteotropic activity as early as Day 8 of
pregnancy (Alloiteau, 1957; Kisch and Shelesnyak, 1967; Morishige and Rothchild, 1974). Since
rat placental lactogen is undetectable at this stage of pregnancy by either bioassay or radioreceptor
assay (Alloiteau and Mayer, 1967; Kelly et al., 1975) and since the decidual tissue of pseudopregnant animals sustains progesterone
synthesis in the relative absence of prolactin (Gibori et al.,
1974), it was of interest to determine the possibility of a similar luteotropic activity by the decidual tissue of the pregnant
rat. Day 9 pregnant rats possessing only decidual tissue or trophoblast
were obtained by either excising fetuses and trophoblast and maintaining the decidual tissue in situ
or by removing the whole conceptuses and transplanting trophoblastic tissue subcutaneously.
Control rats consisted of animals either bearing the whole placenta (fetuses removed), bearing no
conceptuses (uterus completely evacuated), hysterectomized, or sham-operated. To suppress
prolactin release, rats were injected s.c. with 0.4 mg ergocryptine (ECO) on Day 9 of pregnancy.
Control rats were treated with the vehicle. Removal of the fetuses had no deleterious effect on
progesterone secretion. However, when the whole conceptuses were removed, serum progesterone
levels dropped by 25% within 24 h and remained at lower levels through Day 12 than in sham-control animals. In rats bearing
only decidual tissue, the concentration of progesterone in the
serum on Days 10 and 11 remained at levels found in intact pregnant rats. ECO treatment of
sham-operated or fetectomized animals on Day 9 had no effect on serum progesterone, suggesting
that either the placenta or prolactin is necessary for the maintenance of progesterone synthesis at
this stage of pregnancy. However, when both prolactin and the conceptuses were removed by ECO
treatment and hysterectomy or removal of conceptuses, serum progesterone decreased within 24 h
to 8.5 ± 1.4 ng/ml and remained low through Day 12. In contrast, in decidua-bearing rats, serum
progesterone concentration remained elevated 24 and 48 h after ECO treatment. Transplant of Day
12, but not Day 9, trophoblastic tissue to rats with the conceptuses removed also reversed the
effect of ECO on progesterone.
These findings indicate that the decidual tissue of pregnant rats maintains progesterone secretion in the relative absence
of prolactin, and further suggest that a luteotropic hormone secreted in
early pregnancy by the placenta is of decidual tissue origin. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0006-3363 1529-7268 |
DOI: | 10.1095/biolreprod23.3.507 |