Evidence for quadratic association between serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) concentration and fertility in dairy cows
Introduction
Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) is a dimeric glycoprotein, which belongs to the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) family of growth and differentiation factors (Cate et al., 1986). During sexual development of the embryo, AMH, which is produced by Sertoli cells in testes of male embryos, has important functions in regression of paramesonephric ducts in the male embryos, whereas in female embryos, absence of AMH would lead to development of paramesonephric ducts to female reproductive organs (Jost, 1947; Josso et al., 1993). With further embryo/fetal development, there would be initiation of AMH secretion from granulosa cells of ovarian follicles in the females of various species including cattle (Takahashi et al., 1986), sheep (Bézard et al., 1987), mice (Ueno et al., 1989; Durlinger et al., 1999) and humans (La Marca and Volpe, 2006). The production of AMH initiates when activation of primordial follicles occurs, with maximal secretions from preantral and small antral follicles and there is a subsequent decrease in secretion from follicles that develop to the antral stage (McGee and Hsueh, 2000; Weenen et al., 2004; Monniaux et al., 2008; Mossa et al., 2017). In terms of functions, AMH inhibits primordial follicle activation and attenuates the stimulatory effect of FSH on follicular growth; therefore, it is believed that AMH contributes to preservation of ovarian primordial follicle reserve pool, and in turn, extension of reproductive lifespan in females by suppressing the early depletion of primordial follicles from the ovarian pool and inhibiting development of activated follicles (Durlinger et al., 1999, 2001; Dewailly et al., 2014; Mossa et al., 2017).
Irrespective of AMH biochemical and biological properties, this hormone has been recognized to be associated with antral follicle count (AFC; Ireland et al., 2008; Rico et al., 2009; Baldrighi et al., 2014; Gobikrushanth et al., 2017), and both of these biological variables are considered as reliable indirect markers for size of ovarian primordial follicle reserve pool in cattle (Ireland et al., 2008; Tenley et al., 2019) and other species including humans (La Marca and Volpe, 2006). The AMH concentration, therefore, has been evaluated to assess effects of various factors on the ovarian primordial follicle reserve pool in different studies (Mossa et al., 2013; Akbarinejad et al., 2017, 2018). Furthermore, considering the relationship between AMH and size of ovarian reserves and the extent of repeatability of AMH concentrations among individuals (Ireland et al., 2008, 2011; Rico et al., 2009, 2011, Ribeiro et al., 2014; Souza et al., 2015; Gobikrushanth et al., 2017), a number of studies have been conducted to evaluate the association of circulating AMH concentration with reproductive performance of cows so as to understand whether a single assessment of circulating AMH could serve as a predictor of fertility in cattle (Ribeiro et al., 2014; Baruselli et al., 2015; Jimenez-Krassel et al., 2015; Gobikrushanth et al., 2018, 2019). Rebeiro et al. (2014) reported that AMH concentration was positively associated with pregnancy rate when cows were inseminated based on observation of spontaneous estrus. Furthermore, Jimenez-Krassel et al. (2015) reported that fewer cows with the least concentration of AMH were pregnant considering all lactation periods and there was a lesser retention in the herd of these cows as a result of culling practices. More recently, Gobikrushanth et al. (2019) reported that there were lesser pregnancy rates of cows with the least plasma AMH concentration. Nevertheless, results of other studies indicate there is no relationship between blood serum/plasma AMH concentrations and reproductive performance in cattle (Baruselli et al., 2015; Gobikrushanth et al., 2018). Considering these inconsistences in results among studies in terms of the association between concentration of circulating AMH and fertility of cows, there was assessment, in a retrospective study, of the associations between serum AMH concentration and reproductive performance in dairy cows using both linear and quadratic statistical models.
Section snippets
Animals
The present study was performed at a commercial Holstein dairy herd, in which voluntary waiting period before the first postpartum insemination was 50 days and cows were inseminated 12 h after detection of standing estrus. Estrus was detected thrice daily by visual observation for at least 30 min each time. All artificial inseminations were conducted by the same technician and pregnancy diagnosis was initiated 40–45 days after AI using trans-rectal palpation methods.
Data
In the present study, there
Association of AMH concentration with reproductive variables
Mean ± SEM, median, minimum and maximum values of serum AMH concentration were 503 ± 26, 365, 46, 2089 pg/mL, respectively (Fig. 1). None of the reproductive variables had linear associations with concentration of AMH (P > 0.05; Table 1). In contrast, there was a quadratic association of FSCR, SPC, RB, FSCI and CCI with AMH concentration (P < 0.05); however, results from the statistical analysis indicated there was no association between values for DFS and serum AMH (P > 0.05; Table 2).
Reproductive performance of cows when AMH values were in different quartiles
Discussion
The results of the present study indicate there is a quadratic association between serum AMH concentration and fertility in dairy cows, indicating that cows with intermediate concentrations of serum AMH, particularly those with moderately greater concentrations of serum AMH, had a greater reproductive performance as compared with cows with either the least or greatest concentrations of serum AMH. Likewise, when there was partitioning of cows in four quartiles based on AMH concentration,
Conclusion
In conclusion, results of the present study indicate cows with intermediate concentrations of AMH had optimal reproductive performance. When there were concentrations of AMH in the least and greatest quartile classifications, fertility of cows with these classifications was less. Indeed, large scale studies with more numbers would allow for elucidation of the optimal range of AMH concentration, which could be used for selections to assist beef and dairy producers to improve reproductive
CRediT authorship contribution statement
V. Akbarinejad: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. F. Gharagozlou: Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing. M. Vojgani: Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing. A. Ranji: Data curation.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors affirm that there is no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgement
The authors would express their gratitude to Mr. A. Nazeri for his kind assistance in data acquisition.
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