PROGESTERONE SECRETION AND OVARIAN BLOOD FLOW IN THE PREGNANT RAT

Abstract

A venous outflow technique was used to monitor the rates of ovarian blood flow and progesterone secretion simultaneously during periods of 2–3 h in nine rats pregnant for 16 days and anaesthetized with sodium pentobarbitone. The rate of ovarian blood flow was 0·460 ± 0·135 (s.d.) ml/min and that of progesterone secretion was 27·2 ± 7·0 μg/h per ovary. Within rats, progesterone secretion was unrelated to the rate of ovarian blood flow (common correlation coefficient, r = 0·136; degrees of freedom = 61; P, not significant) but the latter was inversely related to the arterio-venous difference in the concentration of progesterone (r = −0·731; P <0·01).