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Intact and chronically ovariectomized ewes were treated for 4 days with charcoal-treated bovine follicular fluid (FF) or charcoal-treated bovine serum during the late-anoestrous period, and the effects on basal and gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH)-induced secretion of LH and FSH observed. Subsequently, ewes received s.c. implants containing a sustained-release formulation of a potent GnRH agonist D-Ser(Bu^t)⁶-Azgly¹⁰-LHRH (ICI 118630) to desensitize pituitary gonadotrophs to hypothalamic stimulation, and the effects of bovine FF and bovine serum were re-assessed 2 weeks later. Chronic exposure (for 2–3 weeks) to ICI 118630 significantly reduced basal levels of LH and FSH in both intact and ovariectomized ewes and completely abolished both spontaneous LH pulses as well as exogenous GnRH-induced acute increases in plasma LH and FSH levels. Treatment with bovine FF significantly reduced plasma FSH levels, but not LH levels, in both intact and ovariectomized ewes before and after chronic exposure to ICI 118630. In intact ewes before exposure to ICI 118630, treatment with bovine FF actually enhanced pulsatile LH secretion and raised mean plasma LH levels by 240% (P <0·05). No such stimulatory effect of bovine FF on LH secretion was observed in intact ewes exposed to ICI 118630 or in ovariectomized ewes before or after exposure to ICI 118630, suggesting that the effect probably involved an alteration in ovarian steroid feedback affecting hypothalamic GnRH output. Treatment with bovine FF did not significantly affect the magnitude of GnRH-induced surges of LH or of FSH observed in either intact or ovariectomized ewes before exposure to ICI 118630. These observations indicate that charcoal-treated bovine FF, a rich source of inhibin, can directly suppress pituitary FSH secretion in vivo, irrespective of whether a functionally intact hypothalamo-pituitary-ovarian axis is present.

J. Endocr. (1988) 117, 431–439

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