The relation between the effects of hysterectomy, decidual tissue, prolactin, or luteinizing hormone (LH) and the ability of indomethacin to prevent luteolysis in rats bearing LH-dependent corpora lutea.

In adult rats hysterectomized on day 8 of pseudopregnancy, the mean serum progesterone (P) level fell from 88 ng/ml on day 8 to 44 ng/ml on day 15 (n = 61). In response to a single sc injection of 0.5 ml of a specific antiserum to LH (LHAS) on day 10, the P level fell to less than 10 by day 15 in 29 of 33 rats; however, this fall, which was indicative of luteolysis, was briefly interrupted by a return to the control level 36 h after treatment. Indomethacin (400 micrograms, sc) administered 12 h before, during, and 12 h after the LHAS injection prevented the luteolysis that followed the 36 h surge in 10 of 15 rats (P less than 0.001). Treatment with 400 micrograms 2Br-alpha ergocryptine (CB 154), sc, on day 10, with or without indomethacin, however, induced a rapid, uninterrupted, and permanent fall to less than 10 in 13 of 13 rats. Treatment with both LHAS and CB 154 reduced the luteolytic effect of CB 154 (P less than 0.001), and indomethacin treatment combined with both LHAS and CB 154 tended to further reduce the luteolytic effect of CB 154 (P less than 0.01). Hypophysectomy on day 10, however, induced rapid, uninterrupted and permanent luteolysis in all rats (15); this was not affected by indomethacin (7 rats) or LHAS (8 rats). Pituitary homotransplantation on day 8 prevented the luteolytic effect of LHAS on day 10 in 6 of 6 rats (P less than 0.003). In decidual tissue (DT)-bearing rats, LHAS on day 10 induced rapid, uninterrupted, and permanent luteolysis in 18 of 18 rats. The response to LHAS on day 10 changed to that of the hysterectomized rat when the DT-bearing uterus was removed on day 8 (12 of 12 rats) or 10 (7 of 7 rats) (P less than 0.001), but did not change when it was removed on day 11 (5 of 5 rats). In DT-bearing rats hysterectomized on day 8, indomethacin in intrabursal Silastic wafers prevented luteolysis in response to LHAS on day 10 (6 of 6 rats; P less than 0.001). Intrabursal indomethacin had no effect on the response to LHAS in intact DT-bearing rats (3 of 3 rats). These results suggest that even when the corpus luteum becomes LH dependent, PRL may retard or prevent LHAS-induced luteolysis in hysterectomized rats. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)