How to choose the suitable animal model of polycystic ovary syndrome?

Abstract

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a gynecological metabolic and endocrine disorder with uncertain etiology. To understand the etiology of PCOS or the evaluation of various therapeutic agents, different animal models have been introduced. Considering this fact that is difficult to develop an animal model that mimics all aspects of this syndrome, but, similarity of biological, anatomical, and/or biochemical features of animal model to the human PCOS phenotypes can increase its application. This review paper evaluates the recently researched animal models and introduced the best models for different research purposes in PCOS studies. During January 2013 to January 2017, 162 studies were identified which applied various kinds of animal models of PCOS including rodent, primate, ruminant and fish. Between these models, prenatal and pre-pubertal androgen rat models and then prenatal androgen mouse model have been studied in detail than others. The comparison of main features of these models with women PCOS demonstrates higher similarity of these three models to human conditions. Thereafter, letrozole models can be recommended for the investigation of various aspects of PCOS. Interestingly, similarity of PCOS features of post-pubertal insulin and human chorionic gonadotropin rat models with women PCOS were considerable which can make it as a good choice for future investigations.

Simultaneous alterations in ovaries and bone as a result of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

“…The results obtained in the present study using a model of adult Wistar rats induced to PCOS with a single dose of EV showed ovarian and estrous cycle changes, bone property modifications in vivo and in vitro, and alterations of ALP, OCN, and T in the plasma. Other studies have employed PCOS animal models 24,29,39 , with differences among the findings for PCOS rats being due to factors such as hormone type and dosage, route of administration, timing and duration of exposure, phase of the estrous cycle, and animal ages at the time of the study 5 .…”

“…Assessment of the etiology of PCOS and evaluation of the longterm risks of PCOS, in relation to bone development and metabolic and reproductive diseases, requires the development of suitable animal models 24 . Information is limited concerning methods for establishing animal models of PCOS, although several animal models have been developed and studied for the human PCOS [24][25][26][27][28][29] . However, the etiology of PCOS is still unclear, due to its complex manifestation as a syndrome and the limitations of translational studies using animals.…”

Which Hyperglycemic Model of Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Suites My Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Research? A Scoring System for Available Methods

“…The scoring system was obtained from the previous study by Tamadon et al ( 2018 ). All the major diabetic outcomes in the proposed models are included and compared to human diabetic state, respectively.…”

“…We used a comparison table in order to magnify the similarities and differences between the mentioned methods ( Tables 1 , 2 ). Also, scoring was suggested in order to choose the best model of hyperglycemia with the highest possible similarities to human among available ones ( Tables 3 , 4 ) based on the previous scoring principles for animal modeling of polycystic ovary syndrome as a metabolic disease (Tamadon et al, 2018 ). A verity of criteria is considered as laboratory workmanship and biological resemblance to human T2DM state.…”

Maternal aromatase inhibition via letrozole altered RFamide-related peptide-3 and gonadotropin releasing hormone expression in pubertal female rat

“…According to the NIH, Rotterdam, and AE-PCOS conferences, hyperandrogenism is the most important diagnostic criteria of PCOS (3). Among androgenic animal models of PCOS, prenatal androgenized PCOS models displayed a set of reproductive and metabolic features of human PCOS (4).…”