Circulating half-lives of follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone in pituitary extracts and isoform fractions of ovariectomized and intact ewes.

Previous studies have shown that the circulating half-life (t 1/2) of serum FSH in ewes after hypophysectomy (HPX) increased 10-fold after ovariectomy (OVEX). The basis for this difference was examined in this study by determining the circulating half-life of serum FSH and LH in HPX ewes after administration of pituitary extracts and gonadotropin isoform fractions. High-speed supernatants of pituitaries from gonadal-intact and OVEX ewes were fractionated by electrofocusing in sucrose gradients and based on the pI distribution of FSH and LH divided into four pools, pH 4.3-4.8, 4.8-5.55, 5.8-6.7, and 6.7-10. These extracts were administered by iv bolus injection to HPX gonadal-intact ewes and blood samples collected between 15-1000 min later. The clearance pattern for both serum FSH and LH was heterogenous, indicative of a major rapid and a minor slow dissociating component. A significant (P less than 0.05) difference in circulating half-lives (rapid component) was observed between pituitary extracts from intact and OVEX ewes for FSH (t 1/2 = 32.8 +/- 8.6 min vs. 89.9 +/- 32.3 min) but not LH (31.3 +/- 9.2 min vs. 39.3 +/- 6.1 min, respectively), whereas no significant difference was observed between the corresponding FSH or LH isoform preparations. To establish if the difference in circulating half-lives obtained after HPX and bolus iv injection was due to mode of delivery, an extract of pituitaries from OVEX ewes was infused for 12 h into HPX sheep and the t 1/2 values determined after cessation of treatment and compared to those after a bolus injection. The clearance of both FSH and LH from plasma after infusion was significantly prolonged than after a bolus injection. It is concluded that the difference in circulating half-lives of FSH between pituitary extracts from intact and OVEX ewes after bolus administration is due to a difference in pituitary FSH composition. However, the prolonged clearance with infusion compared to bolus administration suggests that extrapituitary factors are also responsible.