Progesterone secretion by the bovine fetoplacental unit and responsiveness of corpora lutea to steroidogenic stimuli at two stages of gestation.

To evaluate the response of luteal cells to in vitro stimulation with luteinizing hormone (LH) or dibutyryl cyclic adenosine monophosphate (dbcAMP) and determine the secretion of progesterone by the fetoplacental unit, the corpora lutea were removed surgically in 10 cows (luteectomy) at 250 days (5 cows) or 270 days (5 cows) of gestation. During surgery, but before luteectomy, catheters were placed in the middle uterine artery and vein, carotid artery, and jugular vein. Blood samples were collected from all catheters just before luteectomy and at 8-hour intervals after luteectomy for 72 hours or until calving, whichever occurred first. Luteal tissue was prepared as a dispersed cell preparation and incubated with 0, 0.1, 1.0, 10, or 100 ng of LH/ml of medium or was incubated with 0, 0.5, or 2 mM dbcAMP. Synthesis of progesterone in response to LH by dispersed cells prepared from corpora lutea at 270 days was less (P less than 0.01; analysis of variance) than that by similar preparations at 250 days because a dose-response relationship was not observed for incubations of luteal tissue with LH at 270 days of gestation. Progesterone synthesis in response to the addition of dbcAMP also was less (P less than 0.01) at 270 than at 250 days of gestation. This difference in responsiveness to LH and dbcAMP between the 2 stages of gestation was not reflected by a significant difference between stages of gestation in systemic concentrations of progesterone before luteectomy.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)