Roosa Kristen A, Zysling Devin A, Place Ned J
Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Gen Comp Endocrinol. 2015 Apr 1;214:56-61. doi: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2015.03.007. Epub 2015 Mar 21.
In mammals, female fertility declines with age due in part to a progressive loss of ovarian follicles. The rate of follicle decline varies among individuals making it difficult to predict the age of onset of reproductive senescence. Serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) concentrations correlate with the numbers of ovarian follicles, and therefore, AMH could be a useful predictor of female fertility. In women and some production animals, AMH is used to identify which individuals will respond best to ovarian stimulation for assisted reproductive technologies. However, few studies have evaluated AMH's predictive value in unassisted reproduction, and they have yielded conflicting results. To assess the predictive value of AMH in the context of reproductive aging, we prospectively measured serum AMH in 9-month-old Siberian hamsters shortly before breeding them. Female Siberian hamsters experience substantial declines in fertility and fecundity by 9months of age. We also measured serum AMH in 5-month-old females treated with 4-vinylcyclohexene diepoxide (VCD), which selectively destroys ovarian follicles and functionally accelerates ovarian aging. Vehicle-treated 5-month-old females served as controls. AMH concentrations were significantly reduced in VCD-treated females yet many females with low AMH reproduced successfully. On average, both young and old hamsters that littered had higher AMH concentrations than females that did not. However, some females with relatively high AMH concentrations failed to litter, whereas several with low AMH succeeded. Our results suggest that mean AMH concentration can predict mating outcomes on a population or group level, but on an individual basis, a single AMH determination is less informative.
在哺乳动物中，雌性生育能力会随着年龄增长而下降，部分原因是卵巢卵泡逐渐减少。卵泡减少的速度因人而异，这使得预测生殖衰老的起始年龄变得困难。血清抗苗勒管激素（AMH）浓度与卵巢卵泡数量相关，因此，AMH可能是预测雌性生育能力的有用指标。在女性和一些生产动物中，AMH被用于确定哪些个体对辅助生殖技术的卵巢刺激反应最佳。然而，很少有研究评估AMH在自然受孕中的预测价值，且结果相互矛盾。为了评估AMH在生殖衰老背景下的预测价值，我们在9月龄西伯利亚仓鼠繁殖前不久前瞻性地测量了它们的血清AMH。雌性西伯利亚仓鼠在9月龄时生育力和繁殖力会大幅下降。我们还测量了用4-乙烯基环己烯二环氧化物（VCD）处理的5月龄雌性仓鼠的血清AMH，VCD可选择性地破坏卵巢卵泡并在功能上加速卵巢衰老。用赋形剂处理的5月龄雌性仓鼠作为对照。VCD处理的雌性仓鼠中AMH浓度显著降低，但许多AMH水平低的雌性仍成功繁殖。平均而言，产仔的年轻和老年仓鼠的AMH浓度均高于未产仔的雌性。然而，一些AMH浓度相对较高的雌性未能产仔，而一些AMH浓度低的雌性却成功产仔。我们的结果表明，平均AMH浓度可以在群体水平上预测交配结果，但在个体层面上，单次AMH测定的信息量较少。
