Predominant suppression of follicle-stimulating hormone β-immunoreactivity after long-term treatment of intact and castrate adult male rats with the gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonist deslorelin.

ABSTRACT: Gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists are used to treat gonadal steroid-dependent disorders in humans and to contracept animals. These agonists are considered to work by desensitising gonadotrophs to GnRH, thereby suppressing follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinising hormone (LH) secretion. It is not known whether changes occur in the cellular composition of the pituitary gland after chronic GnRH agonist exposure. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with a sham, deslorelin, or deslorelin plus testosterone implant for 41.0 ± 0.6 days. In a second experiment, rats were castrated and treated with deslorelin and/or testosterone. Pituitary sections were labelled immunocytochemically for FSHβ and LHβ, or gonadotrophin α subunit (αGSU). Deslorelin suppressed testis weig

SUBMITTER: Smith AW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5559102 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature