Inhibition of first ovulation: Administration of an LHRH antagonist to immature female rats

Subcutaneous injections of an LHRH antagonist (ALHRH; Org.30093) were administered to immature female rats. Neither a single high dose (50 μg) nor repeated daily doses of 5-30 μg ALHRH/day, administered between 28 and 38 days of age, influenced the age and body weight at the time of vaginal opening or first ovulation. If repeated daily doses of 2 x 10 μg ALHRH were given from 32 to 42 or from 37 to 47 days of age, first ovulation was delayed by 3.0 and 6.3 days respectively. Administration of 10 μg ALHRH at 09.00 h and again at 17.00 h on the day of first pro-oestrus was found to be sufficient to block the expected first ovulation in 36 out of 38 rats. This effect could be repeated by administering the same doses of ALHRH at pro-oestrus and again on the next day: ovulation was blocked in eight out of eight rats. A single dose of 10 μg ALHRH, administered on the morning of pro-oestrus, blocked ovulation in five out of twelve rats. Both the preovulatory LH and FSH surge, as measured at 16.00 h on pro-oestrus, were found to be inhibited by ALHRH treatment. On the day after pro-oestrus no recruitment of new small antral follicles had occurred in rats with ovulatory blockade. Delayed ovulation took place 2-5 days after ALHRH injection at pro-oestrus; until 3 days after injection rats were able to ovulate their original preovulatory follicles, thereafter newly developed follicles ovulated and large ovarian cysts were found in the ovaries, next to fresh corpora lutea. Chronic administration of two injections daily of 10 μg ALHRH from 34 days of age until the morning of first pro-oestrus had marginal effects on the timing of first pro-oestrus and on follicle dynamics. It was concluded that with the ALHRH compound used, and in chronic as well as in acute experiments, first ovulation could only be delayed by its administration on the day of first pro-oestrus and that the effect was due to acute inhibition of the preovulatory gonadotrophin surge.