Anti-Mullerian Hormone Is an Endocrine Marker of Ovarian Gonadotropin-Responsive Follicles and Can Help to Predict Superovulatory Responses in the Cow

Abstract

The major limitation to the development of embryo production in cattle is the strong between-animal variability in ovulatory response to FSH-induced superovulation, mainly due to differences in ovarian activity at the time of treatment. This study aimed to establish whether anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) was an endocrine marker of follicular populations in the cow, as in human, and a possible predictor of the ovarian response to superovulation. Anti-Müllerian hormone concentrations in plasma varied 10-fold between cows before treatment and were found to be highly correlated with the numbers of 3- to 7-mm antral follicles detected by ovarian ultrasonography before treatment (r=0.79, P<0.001) and the numbers of ovulations after treatment (r=0.64, P<0.01). Between-animal differences in AMH concentrations were found to be unchanged after a 3-mo delay (r=0.87, P<0.01), indicating that AMH endocrine levels were characteristic of each animal on a long-term period. The population of healthy 3- to 7-mm follicles was the main target of superovulatory treatments, contained the highest AMH concentrations and AMH mRNA levels compared with larger follicles, and contributed importantly to AMH endocrine levels. In conclusion, AMH was found to be a reliable endocrine marker of the population of small antral gonadotropin-responsive follicles in the cow. Moreover, AMH concentrations in the plasma of individuals were indicative of their ability to respond to superovulatory treatments.

Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) as a predictor of antral follicle population in heifers

“…Plasma AMH concentration before superovulation varies among animals and is positively correlated to the number of ovulations and transferable embryos produced (Monniaux et al, 2010;Rico et al, 2009).…”

Neonatal exposure to xenoestrogens impairs the ovarian response to gonadotropin treatment in lambs

“…According to the present results, an additional factor such as the xenoestrogen exposure during a critical developmental period may affect the ovarian response to exogenous hormonal treatment. Despite improvements in superovulatory treatments, ovarian responsiveness remains highly variable between individuals and difficult to predict (Rico et al 2009). This variability in the superovulatory response may be explained by different individual levels of exposure to xenoestrogens.…”

Changes in granulosa cells' gene expression associated with increased oocyte competence in bovine

“…The application of all time periods to each individual animal was designed to minimize individual variations in the genomic response. This design is even more important in the context of known variability in the response to hormones both across and within individuals (Kawamata 1994, Cushman et al 1999, Rico et al 2009). The physiological observations of oocyte quality as reflected by the blastocyst rates across coasting duration indicates an initial increase (20-68 h) followed The granulosa cell expression during this period of increasing competence is associated with expression of genes leading to apoptosis increases (FOXO3, STAT6, and CASP8) and cellular proliferation decreases (TP53, SMARCB1, STAT4, and CCL2).…”