Macropodid marsupial testicular gonadotrophin receptors and their use in assays for marsupial gonadotrophins.

The interactions of several mammalian follicle-stimulating hormones and luteinizing hormones with specific gonadotrophin receptors in macropodid marsupial testicular homogenates were investigated with a view to developing radioreceptor assays for marsupial FSH and LH. Testes from Eastern grey kangaroos and tammar wallabies possessed high affinity (dissociation constant congruent to 10(-10) mol/l) saturable receptor sites which were highly specific for LH or FSH. Luteinizing hormone receptor sites bound only highly purified LH preparations (human, ovine and rat) but did not bind highly purified FSH, TSH or prolactin while FSH receptor sites were equally specific for highly purified FSH preparations. These sites demonstrated a degree of species specificity in that marsupial pituitary extracts were relatively more potent in these assays than in assays using gonadotrophin receptors from rat testes. Serum from hypophysectomized female tammar wallabies had little effect on the slope and position of the LH standard curve but significantly depressed the dose-response curve for FSH. For this reason it was not possible to develop a radioreceptor assay for serum FSH using marsupial testicular FSH receptors. However, gonadotrophin receptors from both rat and marsupial testes have been employed in the successful development of radioreceptor assays for marsupial pituitary LH and FSH and marsupial serum LH.