Table 4.

In vitro induction of Ciona gonadal release and synthesis of sex steroids by native cGnRH-I and mGnRH

Sex steroid	Release, ng/g tissue		Synthesis, ng/g tissue
	Control	mGnRH	Control	mGnRH
Testosterone	0.20  ± 0.04	0.70  ± 0.08	3.00  ± 0.50	8.50  ± 1.00
Progesterone	0.05  ± 0.01	0.15  ± 0.03	0.75  ± 0.10	1.50  ± 0.30
17β-estradiol	0.08  ± 0.01	0.20  ± 0.05	0.25  ± 0.05	0.75  ± 0.20
	Control	cGnRH-I	Control	cGnRH-I
Testosterone	0.15  ± 0.03	0.40  ± 0.07	2.80  ± 0.60	7.75  ± 0.80
Progesterone	0.10  ± 0.02	0.25  ± 0.04	0.50  ± 0.10	1.00  ± 0.15
17β-estradiol	0.05  ± 0.01	0.10  ± 0.02	0.30  ± 0.05	0.50  ± 0.10

Results are the mean ± SD obtained from three different experiments (see Materials and Methods). Release represents the hormone concentration assayed in the incubation liquid, and synthesis means the hormone concentration assayed in the gonadal tissue. Student's t test was used to analyze the statistical differences between control and treated results. The difference between GnRH and control was significant, 0.01 < P < 0.05, except for estradiol cGnRH-I vs control, where P > 0.05.