Morphological study of the rat pituitary follicle stimulating hormone cells after alternate day treatment with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH)

The action of the luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) on the hypophyseal gonadotrophins has either an activatory or inhibitory effect depending on the doses administered or on the treatment followed. Both factors can induce a different response in the two hormones. In this work, the effect after the administration of 8 doses (40 micrograms/day) of LHRH at intervals of 48 hours, on the serum levels of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), as well as the numerical density, distribution, intensity of staining and morphometrical parameters of the cells which react against the anti-FSH serum, are assessed. It has been found that with the treatment an increase of FSH serum levels, without modification in the number of immunoreactive cells, but a clear increase in the lightly stained cells, is produced. The distribution of the reactive cells, uniform in normal animals, shows a large numerical density in the dorsal and posterior hypophyseal areas in the treated animals. No change was observed in the nuclear and cellular areas between the different groups.