A Comparitive Study Of Mouse Ovarian Alkaline Phosphatase Activity In Normal And Psuedopregnancies

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to determine alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity of ovary after ovarian induction using pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (PMSG) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) during implantation periods.
Material and Methods: A total of 240 female NMRI mice aged 6-10 weeks were selected and divided into control and hyperstimulated. These mice were rendered normal or pseudopregnant. Five mice per each group were sacrificed by cervical dislocation at the first to sixth day of natural or pseudopregnancy. For biochemical assay the samples were obtained from the ovary, then were hemogenated using Tris HCl buffered salin (pH=8.3) and centrifuged with 14000 g. The activity of enzyme was determined using paranitrophenyle phosphate as substrate. Then specific activity of enzyme was calculated according to the total protein. The data were evaluated with Mann whitney test. For histochemistry the samples were cryosectioned (5m thickness) and the ALP activity was determined by azo-coupling technique using alphanaphtole phosphate as substrate.
Results: The pattern of ALP activity in the biochemical and hisotchemical study was the same in each group. The activity of the ovarian ALP was increased during early pregnancy in the control and hyperstimulated natural pregnant groups. There were significant differences between these groups in every days except on the first and fourth day of pregnancy (p<0.05). The ovarian enzyme activity was increased in pseudopregnancy control until 4th day and in the pseudopregnant hyperstimulation groups until 2nd day of pseudopregnancy then it was decreased. The daily patterny of these alterations were significantly different (p<0.05) comparing the above-mentioned groups. ALP activity was increased in every day of pregnancy (p<0.05) in normal pregnant hyperstimulated group in comparison with the psuedopregnant hyperstimulated group.
Conclusion: Thus ovarion hyprstimulation alters the ovarian ALP activity during early pregnancy. These alteration may be due to esteroidogenesis activity of ovarian cells. However more investigation with complementary technique is needed.