title: Determination of porcine plasma follitropin levels during superovulation treatment in cows.
abstract: Porcine follicle stimulating hormone (pFSH) and porcine luteinizing hormone (pLH), are widely used to induce superovulation in cows. An advantage of this treatment is that the LH:FSH ratio can be varied to optimize the growth of the ovarian follicles. However, due to the relatively short half-life of FSH, the superovulatory treatment requires numerous injections. A performant radioimmunoassay system (sensitivity=0.2 ng/ml plasma) was used to determine plasma pFSH levels in cows that were superovulated with 2 daily injections of 4 Armour Units (A.U.) of pFSH for 4 d. From plasma profiles, the half-life and the disappearance of pFSH were estimated at 5 h and at 10 to 12 h, respectively, confirming the necessity of using two daily injections.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Pharmacie Galénique Université Catholique de Louvain Av. Emmanuel Mounier, 73, 1200, Bruxelles Belgium.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Demoustier
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Beckers
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Van Der Zwalmen
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Closset
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Gillard
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ectors