Abstract
Sampling blood for endocrine analysis from some species may not be practical or ethical. Quantification of hormones extracted from nontypical sample types, such as keratinized tissues, offers a less invasive alternative to the traditional collection and analysis of blood. Here, we aimed to validate assays by using parallelism and accuracy tests for quantification of testosterone, corticosterone, progesterone, and triiodothyronine (T3) in shed skins of tegu lizards. We assessed whether hormone content of sheds varied across one year similar to what was previously detected in plasma samples. In addition, we aimed to identify the phase relationship between hormone levels of shed skin and plasma levels obtained from the same animals. High frequency of shedding occurred during the active season for tegus (spring/summer), while shedding ceased during hibernation (winter). All hormones measured in shed skins exhibited seasonal changes in concentration. Levels of testosterone in shed skins of male tegus correlated positively with plasma testosterone levels, while corticosterone in both males and females exhibited an inverse relationship between sample types for the same month of collection. An inverse relationship was found when accounting for a lag time of 3 and 4 months between sheds and plasma testosterone. These results indicate that endocrine content of sheds may be confounded by factors (i.e., seasons, environmental temperature, thermoregulatory behavior, among others) that affect frequency of molting, skin blood perfusion, and therefore hormone transfer from the bloodstream and deposition in sheds of squamates.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Augusto S. Abe for providing the animals from Jacarezario, UNESP-Rio Claro and Virginia Tessarine Barbosa for veterinary and technical assistance. We also thank Euclides Roberto Secatto and Damaris Perecin for technical assistance and Tiago Carabolante and Diogo Caporicci for helping with animal care and blood sample collection.
Funding
The present study was supported by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo–FAPESP (2017/01652-2 and 2018/06192-2, post-doc fellowship to L.A.Z.; 2015/04849-6 grant to K.C.B; 2014/16320-7 grant to C.A.N.), the University of Alaska Anchorage Environment and Natural Resources Institute and Northern Arizona University (both awarded to C.L.B).
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LAZ, CLB, KCB and CAN conceived the study; LAZ, CLB and KCB. designed the study; LAZ. conducted experiments; LAZ, DD, KEH, CLB. and KCB analyzed and interpreted data; CLB, KCB and CAN provided resources for the study; LAZ, DD, KEH, CAN, KCB and CLB wrote and edited the manuscript.
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All experimental protocols were approved by a local Animal Care and Use Committee of São Paulo State University (CEUA; # 7.434/16).
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Zena, L.A., Dillon, D., Hunt, K.E. et al. Seasonal changes in steroid and thyroid hormone content in shed skins of the tegu lizard Salvator merianae. J Comp Physiol B 192, 127–139 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-021-01397-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-021-01397-3