The neuroendocrine events during the ovine growth-promoted maturation: The developmental importance of hypophysiotrophic action of somatostatin in ewes

The comparison of hypothalamic somatostatin (SRIH)-neuronal systems, hypophyseal somatotroph populations and growth hormone (GH) blood plasma patterns among developmental stages, from infancy until puberty, may help to describe the nature of the hypothalamo-hypophyseal mechanisms underlying the changes in GH on the systemic level leading to the somatic, that is growth and sexual maturity in sheep. The aim of this study was to elucidate (i) developmental importance of hypophysiotrophic action of SRIH, (ii) precise time of maturation of this action and (iii) photoperiodic regulation of the postnatal ontogeny in ewes. The central and peripheral activity of the SRIH-GH axis is described through a sequence of histomorphological and functional changes in Merino ewes born after the summer solstice. The actual time of puberty of these animals was delayed until the following breeding season, when the sheep were 14-month old. Histomorphometric examinations have been made in 21 infantile (preweanling, 12-week old), prepubertal (15- and 22-week old), peripubertal (30- and 52-week old) and pubertal (63-week old) ovary-intact sheep. Functional examinations of the GH plasma levels were determined every 1–2 weeks during the period from the 12th to 63rd week of age. The highest GH level was observed at the 13th week of age, on the beginning of the breeding season. The fluctuations in the GH level just after the winter and summer solstice were detected as the one and only deviation from a rule of uniformly low GH concentrations observed until puberty. The age of the fall in serum GH levels corresponded with the postweaning period and the beginning of the phase of the lower daily live-weight gains (growth rate). Thus, the development of GH secretion was finished before the 15th week of age, that is together with the ending of the transitional infantile/prepubertal period, whereas the maturational processing within the hypothalamo-hypophyseal unit prolonged after the 15th week of age until 22 weeks of age and concerned the role of SRIH as the hypophysiotrophic factor regulating somatic maturation, i.e. attenuating growth. Altogether, the pattern of GH secretion during weaning is important for the shift between infancy and prepuberty depended upon an intensive growth and defined as growth maturation. The maturation of the SRIH-GH axis is finished by 22 weeks of age, independently of photoperiodic influences, whereas the neuroendocrine mechanisms to integrate somatic, that is growth and sexual maturation, are seasonal in nature in the ewe. Our observations confirm the hypothesis of the inherent endogenous rhythm controlling somatic maturation in the sheep.