Treatment of immature mice with gonadotrophins. The influence of mouse age on the response of ovarian alkaline phosphatase activities to gonadotrophins.

Treatment of mice aged 23-25 days with chorionic gonadotrophin induced large amounts of an ovarian alkaline phosphatase activity (phosphatase Ib) kinetically distinct from that of untreated ovaries (phosphatase I). The activities of alkaline phosphatase I and Ib varied with age in untreated mice. Phosphatase Ib appeared when serum luteinizing hormone concentrations increased (days 4-10 and days 35-45), and disappeared when concentrations were low (days 11-35). Injection of human chorionic gonadotrophin induced progressively larger amounts of phosphatase Ib activity between day 19 and day 29. However, gonadotrophin treatment failed to induce this activity on days 10-18 and 30-35. Nevertheless, during the latter period, human chorionic gonadotrophin induced especially large increases in uterine weight. Treatment at different ages with sheep luteinizing hormone plus human pituitary follicle-stimulating hormone induced a pattern of response identical with that induced by human chorionic gonadotrophin, although sheep luteinizing hormone alone was ineffective before 35 days. In contrast, human luteinizing hormone induced a response in the absence of exogenous follicle-stimulating hormone.