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Antral Follicle Count Reliably Predicts Number of Morphologically Healthy Oocytes and Follicles in Ovaries of Young Adult Cattle¹

Molecular Reproductive Endocrinology Laboratory,³ Laboratory of Mammalian Reproductive Biology and Genomics,⁴ Department of Animal Science, and Physiology Department,⁵ Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824 Department of Internal Medicine,⁶ Erasmus MC, Rotterdam 3000 DR, The Netherlands School of Agriculture, Food Science, and Veterinary Medicine,⁷ and Conway Institute, College of Life Sciences, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland

ABSTRACT

Methods to predict numbers of healthy oocytes in the ovaries of young adults could have important diagnostic relevance in family planning and animal agriculture. We have observed that peak antral follicle count (AFC) determined by serial ovarian ultrasonography during follicular waves is very highly reproducible within individual young adult cattle, despite 7-fold variation among animals. Herein, we tested the hypothesis that AFC is positively associated with the number of morphologically healthy oocytes and follicles in ovaries and with serum concentrations of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), an indirect marker for number of healthy follicles and oocytes in ovaries. In the present study, age-matched young adult cattle (12–18 mo old) were subjected to serial ultrasonography to identify animals with a consistently high (25 follicles that were 3 mm in diameter) or low (15 follicles) AFC during follicular waves. Differences in serum AMH concentrations, ovary weight, and number of morphologically healthy and atretic follicles and oocytes were determined. The phenotypic classifications of cattle based on AFC during follicular waves or AMH concentrations both predict reliably the relative number of morphologically healthy follicles and oocytes in ovaries of age-matched young adult cattle.

anti-Müllerian hormone, antral follicle count, bovine, follicle waves, ovarian reserve, ovary size, reproductive longevity, total number of healthy oocytes, variation in oocyte numbers

¹Supported by National Research Initiative Competitive Grants 2001-002255, 2004-01697, and 2007-01289 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, and by funds from the Michigan Agriculture Experiment Station to J.J.I.; and Science Foundation Ireland under grant 02/IN1/B78 to A.C.O.E. and P.L.

Correspondence: ²J.J. Ireland, Room 1230, Anthony Hall, Department of Animal Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1225. FAX: 517 353 1699; e-mail: ireland{at}msu.edu

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