Effect of Gonadotrophic Hormones on Glucose Metabolism by Luteinized Rat Ovaries

Purified LH has been shown to exert a pronounced stimulatory action upon the rate of in vitro glucose uptake by slices of luteinized rat ovaries. This effect became evident within 30 minutes after intravenous injection of the hormone, but could not be produced by addition of the hormone directly to the incubation media. Whole ovaries and quartered ovaries utilized glucose less rapidly than did thin slices, but were still responsive to LH stimulation in vivo. The other gonadotrophins, FSH and prolactin, produced no stimulatory effects that could not be explained on the basis of LH contamination. LH failed to stimulate glucose uptake by adrenal, kidney, diaphragm, thymus, uterus and adipose tissue. The stimulation of ovarian glucose uptake by LH was accompanied by a less pronounced increase in conversion of glucose-1-C14 and glucose-6-C14 to C14O2 and to C14-lipids. Carbon 1 of glucose appeared in both CO2 and lipids at essentially the same rate as carbon 6, both in unstimulated and in LH-stimulated luteini...