Neural Circuits Regulating Pulsatile Luteinizing Hormone Release in the Female Guinea‐Pig: Opioid, Adrenergic and Serotonergic Interactions

We studied three neurotransmitters involved in the regulation of pulsatile luteinizing hormone (LH) release: opioid peptides, serotonin and norepinephrine, using the ovariectomized guinea‐pig. This is an attractive animal model due to the regularity of its LH pulses, enabling any disruptions to be clearly ascertained. In all experiments, a specific agonist or antagonist was administered, either alone or serially to enable detection of interactions, and effects on mean LH concentrations, pulse amplitude and interpulse interval were determined by PULSAR analysis. In the ovariectomized guinea‐pig, catecholamines are stimulatory (acting through the α 1 and α 2 but not β receptors, unlike other species), opioids inhibitory and serotonin permissively stimulatory to pulsatile LH release. Stimulatory effects of the opiate antagonist were not blocked by pretreatment with an α 1 ‐ or α 2 ‐adrenergic antagonist. Similarly, pretreatment with the opiate antagonist did not prevent the suppression of LH release by α 1 and α 2 antagonists. This suggests that, in the guinea‐pig, effects of opiates and catecholamines on LH release are exerted by independent pathways to luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) neurones. For the opiate–serotonin interactions, pretreatment with the serotonergic antagonist did not block the stimulatory effect of the opiate antagonist on LH release. However, pretreatment with the opiate agonist could not be overcome by the serotonergic agonist. This suggests that the effects of the serotonin system on LHRH release may be indirectly mediated by opioid neurones. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that the three neurotransmitter systems studied are critically involved in normal pulsatile LH release in the female guinea‐pig, and demonstrate novel functional relationships between the opioid and the adrenergic and serotonergic systems.