Pulsatile pituitary gonadotropin secretion during maturation of the dominant follicle in monkeys: estrogen positive feedback enhances the biological activity of LH.

In the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, pulsatile patterns of LH and FSH secretion in monkeys change during maturation of the dominant follicle. At the preovulatory surge, the most striking event is the prodigious elevations of bioassayable LH, rising up to 50-fold within 24 h. Principally, establishment of the surge is due to marked enhancement of the amplitude of LH secretory pulses. In contrast, LH and FSH measured by RIA enter, in parallel, the surge modes of secretion approximately 5 h later than bioassayable LH and rise more slowly; the B:I ratio may reach 10:1. This same disparity between bioassayable versus immunoassayable LH was induced in castrate monkeys under estrogen positive feedback stimulation. We conclude that the preovulatory estrogen surge promotes the secretion of an LH molecule(s) having enhanced biological activity.