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Immunohistochemical localization of GnRH and RFamide-related peptide-3 in the ovaries of mice during the estrous cycle

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Abstract

Gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) has now been suggested as an important intraovarian regulatory factor. Gonadotropin inhibitory hormone (GnIH) a hypothalamic dodecapeptide, acts opposite to GnRH. GnRH, GnIH and their receptors have been demonstrated in the gonads. In order to find out the physiological significance of these neuropeptides in the ovary, we aim to investigate changes in the abundance of GnRH I and GnIH in the ovary of mice during estrous cycle. The present study investigated the changes in GnRH I, GnRH I-receptor and RFRP-3 protein expression in the ovary of mice during estrous cycle by immunohistochemistry and immunoblot analysis. The immunoreactivity of GnRH I and its receptor and RFRP-3 were mainly localized in the granulosa cells of the healthy and antral follicles during proestrus and estrus and in the luteal cells during diestrus 1 and 2 phases. The relative abundance of immunoreactivity of GnRH I, GnRH I-receptor and RFRP-3 undergo significant variation during proestrus and thus may be responsible for selection of follicle for growth and atresia. A significant increase in the concentration of RFRP-3 during late diestrus 2 coincided with the decline in corpus luteum activity and initiation of follicular growth and selection. In general, immunolocalization of GnRH I, GnRH I-receptor and RFRP-3 were found in close vicinity suggesting functional interaction between these peptides. It is thus, hypothesized that interaction between GnRH I-RFRP-3 neuropeptides may be involved in the regulation of follicular development and atresia.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by Grant-in aid from UGC, New Delhi to (F. 34-420/2008 SR) AK; Scientific research from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Japan (15207007, 16086206 and 18107002) to KT and grants from NIH, USA (HD41749, HD52155 and RR03034) to RS. PS is thankful to CSIR, India for providing research fellowships.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that would prejudice the impartiality of this scientific work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India

    Padmasana Singh & Amitabh Krishna

  2. Department of Physiology, Morehouse School of Medicine, 720 Westview Dr SW, Atlanta, GA, 30310-1495, USA

    Rajagopala Sridaran

  3. Laboratory of Integrative Bain Sciences, Department of Biology, Waseda University, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8480, Japan

    Kazuyoshi Tsutsui

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  1. Padmasana Singh
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  2. Amitabh Krishna
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  4. Kazuyoshi Tsutsui
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Correspondence to Amitabh Krishna.

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Singh, P., Krishna, A., Sridaran, R. et al. Immunohistochemical localization of GnRH and RFamide-related peptide-3 in the ovaries of mice during the estrous cycle. J Mol Hist 42, 371–381 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10735-011-9340-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10735-011-9340-8

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