Ovarian 32P uptake in the homoplastic hypophysectomized catfish, Heteropneustes fossilis as an end point for gonadotropin bioassay.

Ovarian 32P incorporation in hypophysectomized Heteropneustes fossilis in response to pituitary gland extract pooled from same species and mammalian gonadotropic preparations were studied. Maximum 32P uptake by ovary was obtained when a tracer dose of radiophosphorus was given 30 minutes after LH injection and fish were sacrificed 12 hours after the tracer shot. A log-dose response was observed between ovarian 32P uptake and gonadotropic content of pituitary extract or LH in hypophysectomized H. fossilis. This response was specific because FSH, TSH, prolactin and growth hormone injections failed to induce dose dependent and significant 32P uptake by ovary in similar assay recipients. However, FSH along with LH at higher dosage yielded an additive response. Also a parallelism of log-dose response was obtained between fish pituitary gonadotropin and ovine LH. Index of precision (lambda) was less than 0.214. Since donors and recipients were of the same species this bioassay of 12.5 hours for estimation of total gonadotropic potency seems to be rapid, reliable, sensitive and free from phylogenetic species specificity interaction between hormone and its receptor.