Regulatory effect of epigenin on hypothalamus-adenohypophysis-ovarian in rats

Objective To study the effect of apigenin(Api) on adenohypophysis,follicle stimulating hormone(FSH),luteinzing hormone(LH),estradiol(E2),and progesterone(P).Methods Cell culture,radioimmunoassay,and hypothalamus(H) -adenohypophysis(AP) -ovarian(O) tertiary culture cell sequence perfusion were adopted.The sequence of perfusion was H-AP-O and the concentrations were 10^-4 mol/L,10^-5 mol/L,and 10^-6 mol/L.The contents of FSH,LH,E2 and P in adenohypophysis and ovarian granulosa cell medium were measured.Results In ovarian granulosa cells of proestrus rats treated with Api(10^-4 mol/L-10^-6 mol/L),E2 and P secretion decreased in concentration-dependence manner compared to those of the control group with statistically significant differences(P< 0.01) and the contents of E2 and P decreased with the increase of Api conentration.There were no significant differences in LH and FSH secretion of adenohypophysis cells betw een the proestrus rats in Api treatment groups and the control group(P> 0.05).Conclusion Api inhibits E2 and P secretion of ovarlan granular cells but does not affect FSH and LH secretion of adenohypophysis in proestrus female rats.