The role of gonadectomy and testosterone replacement on thymic luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone production.

We and others have identified luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) in cells of the immune system in both animals and humans. LHRH is an immunostimulant, and testosterone is an immunosuppressant. Because testosterone is known to modulate the concentrations of hypothalamic LHRH, we wondered whether testosterone might also alter the concentrations of rat thymic LHRH. Two weeks after castration or sham castration, adult male rats were implanted with either vehicle or testosterone capsules. All animals were killed 4 days after capsule implantation. Thymic LHRH concentration increased significantly in castrated animals. Testosterone replacement prevented this increase. The concentration of the LHRH precursor, proLHRH, decreased significantly, but testosterone replacement prevented this decrease. Steady-state concentrations of LHRH mRNA were not changed by castration or by hormonal replacement. In contrast to the post-castration increase in thymic LHRH, LHRH content of the hypothalamus decreased significantly. Whereas concentrations of LHRH were lower in the thymus than in the hypothalamus, proLHRH concentrations were much greater in the thymus. These data suggest that gonadal manipulation modulates LHRH molecular processing and its tissue concentration in the thymus in addition to those in the hypothalamus, and that the regulation of LHRH molecular processing by testosterone in the hypothalamus is different from that in the thymus.