The Effect of Alcohol on Quantitative and Qualitative Changes in Luteinizing Hormone (Lh) In the Female Rat

In order to study the impact of short-term ethanol feeding on pituitary luteinizing hormone (LH) levels, LH release and hormone microheterogeneity, 28 female oophorec-tomized rats were fed either a diet containing 36% ethanol or an isocaloric diet without ethanol for 16 days. On the 14th day of the experiment, all rats were given 50 μg of estradiol subcutaneously to provide a uniform steroid milieu and to induce an LH surge, and sacrificed 48 hours later. Total levels of pituitary and serum immunoreactive LH were identical between the ethanol and control groups. However, when pituitary LH was analyzed by isoelectric focusing on agarose gel a distinct difference was found. Four distinct immunoreactive peaks at pI's 3.50–4.55, 5.20–6.50, 7.00–7.50, 8.15–9.30 were noted. Ethanol-treated animals exhibited an 8–fold increase in the acidic LH subspecies in the pi range 3.50–4.55 and similarly more LH was determined at pI 7.00–7.50