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The ovary learns to ovulate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2011

B. Lunenfeld
Affiliation:
Institute of Endocrinology, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel and the Department of Social Medicine,University Hospital for Women, Basle, Switzerland
Z. Kraiem
Affiliation:
Institute of Endocrinology, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel and the Department of Social Medicine,University Hospital for Women, Basle, Switzerland
A. Eshkol
Affiliation:
Institute of Endocrinology, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel and the Department of Social Medicine,University Hospital for Women, Basle, Switzerland
I. Werner-Zodrow
Affiliation:
Institute of Endocrinology, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel and the Department of Social Medicine,University Hospital for Women, Basle, Switzerland

Extract

Sensory stimuli from the external environment (e.g. visual and olfactory stimuli, stress) or internal stimuli cause brain nerve fibres to release neurotransmitters (catecholamines, indolamines and cholinergic agents). These neurotransmitters regulate the secretion of gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) from neurosecretory cells of the hypothalamus (Kamberi, 1975). It would seem that under the proper steroid environment, catecholamines (dopamine, norepinephrine or epinephrine) and the cholinergic agent acetylcholine exert a stimulatory influence, whereas indolamines (serotonin or its metabolic product, melatonin) have an opposite effect. In turn, GnRH reaches the anterior pituitary via the hypophyseal portal system, and, through the mediation of cAMP [though may be not as an obligatory intermediate (Naor et al., 1975)], controls gonadotrophin secretion (Labrie et al., 1974).

Type
I. Genital maturation
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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