Pulsatile secretion of progesterone from the human corpus luteum: poor correlation with bioactive LH pulses.

Having previously established that biologically active luteinizing hormone (LH) is secreted in episodic pulsations that vary in relation to the menstrual cycle, we investigated the possibility that a temporal relationship could exist between the bioactive LH pulses and progesterone secretion from the late corpus luteum. In 4 young women blood was withdrawn every 15 min for 8 h. Serum progesterone concentrations fluctuated at a mean frequency of 0.9 h with a wide range of amplitudes (13.8 to 1.7 ng/ml). Serum bioactive LH pulse frequency in contrast was 0.25 pulses/h in all subjects. The pulse amplitude was 18.2 to 12.4 mIU/ml (2nd IRP-hMG). These data reveal that within the 8 h-period studied, progesterone secretory pulses occurred four times more frequently as those for bioactive LH. Therefore it is unlikely that a temporal relationship exists between individual bioactive LH and pulses of progesterone-secreted by the late corpus luteum.