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Successful conservation of an endangered species relies on a good understanding of its reproductive biology, but there are large knowledge gaps. For example, many questions remain unanswered with regard to gestation and fetal development in the giant panda. We take advantage of a sample size that is unprecedented for this species (nZ13) to explore patterns in reproductive development across individuals at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda. We use ultrasound techniques on multiple giant pandas for the first time to empirically confirm what has long been suspected that pandas exhibit delayed implantation of the embryo. We also show that the duration of postfetal detection period is remarkably similar across individuals (16.85G1.34 days). Detection of fetus by ultrasound was strongly correlated to the peak in urinary progesterone (rZ0.96, tZ8.48, d.f.Z8, PZ0.0001) and swelling in the mammary glands (rZ0.79, tZ3.61, d.f.Z8, PZ0.007) and vulva (rZ0.91, tZ6.40, d.f.Z8, PZ0.0002) of adult females. When controlling for both the duration of the total gestation period and the postfetal detection period, infant birth weight was only significantly predicted by the latter (bZ11.25, S.E.M.Z4.98, tZ2.26, PZ0.05), suggesting that delayed implantation increases flexibility in the timing of birth but is not important in dictating infant growth. This study informs reproductive biology by exploring the little-studied phenomenon of delayed implantation in relationship to physiological changes in pregnant giant panda females.

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Background and Purpose Previous studies have explored the association between retinal vascular changes and cognitive impairment. The retinal vasculature shares some characteristics with the cerebral vasculature, and quantitative changes in it could indicate cognitive impairment. Hence, a comprehensive meta-analysis was performed to clarify the potential relationship between retinal vascular geometric changes and cognitive impairment. Methods Relevant databases were scrupulously and systematically searched for retinal vascular geometric changes including caliber, tortuosity, and fractal dimension (FD), and for cognitive impairment. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to evaluate the methodological quality of included studies. RevMan was used to perform the meta-analysis and detect publication bias. Sensitivity analyses were also performed. Results Five studies that involved 2,343 subjects were finally included in the meta-analysis. The results showed that there was no significant association between central retinal artery equivalents (Z=1.17) or central retinal venular equivalents (Z=1.74) and cognitive impairment (both p>0.05). Similarly, no significant difference was detected in retinal arteriolar tortuosity (Z=0.91) and venular tortuosity (Z=1.31) (both p>0.05). However, the retinal arteriolar FD (mean difference:-0.03, 95% CI:-0.05,-0.01) and venular FD (mean difference:-0.03, 95% CI:-0.05,-0.02) were associated with cognitive impairment. Conclusions A smaller retinal microvascular FD might be associated with cognitive impairment. Further large-sample and well-controlled original studies are required to confirm the present findings.

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