The effects of arginine vasotocin on pregnant Mare's serum-induced ovulation in the immature female rat.

Arginine vasotocin (AVT) treatment (1 microgram/injection) every two hours beginning at 06.00 h on the morning preceding expected ovulation significantly inhibited ovulation in 29-day-old immature female rats treated 2 days earlier with 30 IU of PMS. Pre-ovulatory plasma surges and pituitary decreases in LH, FSH and prolactin as measured by radioimmunoassay were not eliminated by AVT treatment. However, there appeared to be an early rise in plasma FSH in these rats and the maximum plasma LH value attained during the surge period in PMS-treated rats was elevated by AVT treatment. Arginine vasotocin significantly inhibited the increase in ovarian weight which occurs in PMS-treated rats on the day preceding ovulation and uterine weights were consistently depressed in AVT-treated rats. The results of this study indicate that AVT likely inhibits PMS-induced ovulation at the level of the ovary, although the possibility cannot be ruled out that inhibition resulted from the advancement of the plasma FSH rise. These data and other studies investigating the effects of AVT on reproduction indicate that AVT is possibly capable of acting at more than one level of the hypothalamo-hypophyseal-gonadal axis.