Follicle-stimulating hormone and estrogen elevate deoxyribonucleic acid alpha-nucleotidyltransferase activity in relationship to deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis in immature rat ovaries.

The deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase activities and deoxyribonucleic acid contents of ovaries were measured to clarify the relationship between hormone-stimulated cell proliferation and the enzymes in ovaries of immature intact rats (4 to 29 days after birth) and hypophysectomized rats. The specific activity of deoxyribonucleic acid alpha-nucleotidyltransferase (the activity per microgram of deoxyribonucleic acid of the ovaries) drastically increased with an increase in the deoxyribonucleic acid content of the ovaries from 4 to 14 days after birth and then remained constant or slightly decreased after the increase, while the activity decreased gradually after hypophysectomy with no increase in the DNA content. Ovine follicle-stimulating hormone or estradiol-17 beta enhanced the deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis and alpha-nucleotidyltransferase activity in the ovaries of hypophysectomized rats, while deoxyribonucleic acid beta-nucleotidyltransferase activity showed no significant change. Ovine luteinizing hormone, progesterone, and testosterone caused no significant increases. These results suggest that follicle-stimulating hormone or estrogen causes the induction of deoxyribonucleic acid alpha-nucleotidyltransferase accompanied by deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis in cell proliferation in immature rat ovaries.