Abstract
In female mammals, reproductive senescence is a complex process involving progressive ovarian dysfunction associated with an altered central control of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis. The objective of this study was to compare the longitudinal change in preovulatory luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion as well as estrous cycle in individual C57BL/6 J female mice at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. Amplitude and timing of LH secretion at the surge were similar from 3 to 9 months but were altered in 12-month old mice with a significant decrease of more than 50% of peak LH value and a 2 h delay in the occurrence of the LH surge as compared to younger mice. The analysis of two to three successive LH surges at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months showed low and similar intra-individual variability at all ages. The estrous cycle length and intra/inter variability were stable over the age. This study shows that female mice in regular environmental conditions display stable LH surge timing and amplitude up to 9 months, but at 12 months, the LH surge is delayed with a reduced amplitude, however without overt modification in the estrous cycles. Analysis of individual preovulatory LH secretion and estrous cycle indicates that mice can be followed up to 9 months to investigate the detrimental effects of various parameters on mouse reproductive activity.
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Acknowledgements
Authors are very grateful to Dr. Matthew Beymer for his scientific training on estrous cycle and LH analyses, to Dr. Viviane Pallage and Dr. Beatrice Bothorel for their valuable help on statistical analysis, and to Dr. A. F. Parlow (National Hormone and Peptide Program, Torrance, California) for contributing valuable reagents.
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TB was supported by the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale for his PhD research (FDM20140630371).
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TB and VS contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Bahougne. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Bahougne and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Bahougne, T., Angelopoulou, E., Jeandidier, N. et al. Individual evaluation of luteinizing hormone in aged C57BL/6 J female mice. GeroScience 42, 323–331 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-019-00104-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-019-00104-z