Abstract
It has been speculated that there is a non-steroidal ovarian hormone which acts as a negative feedback signal for FSH (1). Recent data from our own laboratory (2,3,4) as well as others (5,6,7) suggest that this hormone, folliculostatin or female inhibin, can be found in charcoal extracted porcine or bovine follicular fluid. In the adult (67–80 days old) female rat ovariectomized (ovax) at 0800h on the day of metestrus, serum FSH is elevated by 9h post-ovax (1700h). As little as 150 µl of porcine follicular fluid (PFF) injected at 1130h (3.5h post-surgery) can suppress this rise (3). Furthermore, this same amount of PFF injected into a sham-operated adult will suppress the basal levels of FSH (3). Since FSH has been implicated in the neonatal development of the ovary (8,9,10,11,12), it was of interest to determine if PFF could selectively suppress serum FSH in the neonatal and prepuberal female rats. Thus, the purpose of the following experiments performed in neonatal and prepuberal rats was to see if PFF could suppress FSH without altering LH and thus lead to a model for investigating the role of FSH in neonatal ovarian development.
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