The uptake of 3H-oestradiol by the anterior hypophysis and hypothalamus of male and female rats.

Abstract

The anterior hypophysis and hypothalamus of male and female rats given 3H-oestradiol were examined with regard to 1) the kinetics of the uptake of the radioactive material, 2) the chemical nature of the labelled material, and 3) the influence of non-labelled oestradiol-17β, oestradiol-17α and testosterone on the uptake of 3H-oestradiol. The anterior hypophysis was found to concentrate and retain oestradiol in basically the same manner in male and female rats. The pattern of the uptake was similar to that of the uterus and vagina, with a concentration peak 2 hours after the injection. Non-target tissues such as cerebral cortex, liver and blood attained their maximum uptake already 15 minutes after the injection. Thereafter the concentration gradually decreased. The ratio between the concentration of labelled material in the anterior hypophysis and brain cortex gradually increased until a peak was reached at 8 hours in both sexes. In the female, the concentration of labelled material in the anterior hypophysis was then 106.3 times greater than in the brain cortex, while in the male the ratio was 63.2. In the hypothalamus the uptake followed a pattern similar to that of the brain cortex. However, in the former the concentration of labelled material was consistently greater than in the latter. At maximum uptake, registered 4 hours after the injection, the concentration was about two times greater in the hypothalamus than in the cerebral cortex. The neurohypophysis contained, on an average, 1/6 of the amount of radioactive material registered in the anterior lobe one hour after the injection, but it was about two times greater than in the brain cortex. Isolation and identification of the radioactive material in the anterior hypophysis and hypothalamus showed that in both sexes nearly all of it was chemically unchanged oestradiol. Graded doses of non-labelled oestradiol-17β were found to decrease the uptake of 3H-oestradiol in the anterior hypophysis and hypothalamus almost linearly, while the concentration of labelled material in the brain was unaltered. Oestradiol-17α and testosterone were without significant effect on both the pituitary and hypothalamic accumulation of 3H-oestradiol. Therefore, a limited number of binding sites, with a high degree of specificity for oestradiol, appear to exist in both tissues. The results were essentially the same in male and female rats.