ACTIVIN CAUSES PREMATURE SUPEROVULATION

In the rat ovary, follicle cells produce and respond to activin, but as yet, the functional significance of the autocrine/paracrine effects of ovarian activin remains equivocal. To assess the effects of activin on folliculogenesis, normal cycling female rats were injected once every 8 h over a 40-h period with recombinant human activin A (120 mu g/kg) beginning at 1300 h on estrus (day 1 of treatment). A total of 10 rats were injected with activin in 2 separate experiments. On days 3 and 4 of treatment, blood was obtained for hormone measurements, and the ovaries were removed for histology. Follicle counts were performed in 1 ovary from 3 representative animals in each treatment group. All antral (Graafian) follicles 300 mu m or more in diameter were measured and classified as healthy or atretic based on the number of pyknotic nuclei in the largest cross-section. On day 3, all rats were in diestrus (diestrous day 2). After 3 days of activin administration, serum levels of estradiol were increased 200%, progesterone levels were decreased 67%, and FSH levels were unchanged compared with those in matched controls. By day 4 (i.e. 1 day after the last injection), no changes in the levels of these hormones were observed. Injection of activin for 3 days did not change the total number of antral follicles per ovary (control, 41.3 +/- 4.9; activin, 43.7 +/- 3.9); however, activin significantly increased the total number of atretic follicles (control, 69%; activin, 92%). Morphometric analysis of the ovaries removed on day 3 showed a marked increase (2-fold) in the number of large follicles, but most (89%) were atretic. Follicle counts suggested that the additional large follicles may have come from the pool of healthy small follicles. Histological studies showed that some of the day 3 activin-treated follicles had initiated ovulation. On day 4, control and activin treated animals were at proestrus and estrus, respectively. Therefore, activin shortened the estrous cycle by 1 day. Little or no change in the follicle populations was observed in day 4 control ovaries. Interestingly, however, in 2 of the 3 activin treated animals, 1 set of large follicles had ovulated (12 +/- 1 expanded egg cumulus complexes/oviduct), and another set (13 +/- 2) was just about to rupture. The activin-exposed oocytes (tubal and follicular) appeared arrested in metaphase I. After ovulation, activin-treated follicles developed into typical corpora lutea. No ovulations were found in control animals. We conclude that multiple injections of activin A into adult cycling rats leads to premature superovulation of immature eggs from large follicles, many of which appear atretic.