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a Laboratory of Animal Reproduction, School of Agricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya, 4648601, Japan
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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Recently, we found that BALB/cA females mated with BALB/cA males showed a 100% pregnancy block when exposed to DDK males within 3 days after copulation. However, a gradual increase in survival rates of embryos was seen when the start of exposure to DDK males was delayed, and it was suggested that the developmental state of embryos or embryonic viability at the critical period might be a factor [8]. In effect, embryonic development is influenced by both environmental [11] and genetic factors [12]. Therefore, we investigated the effect of embryonic genotype or the viability of embryos on pregnancy block induced by either male pheromonal effects or a dopamine agonist. In the present report, we describe evidence that an embryonic factor plays a significant role in pregnancy block in mice.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Strains of mice used in the present study were BALB/cA, CBA/J, C3H/HeN, C57BL/6Cr, DDK, and IXBL. BALB/cA and C57BL/6Cr were purchased from Nippon Clea Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) and Shizuoka Laboratory Animal Corporation (Hamamatsu, Japan), respectively. CBA/J and C3H/HeN were introduced from the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research, School of Medicine, Nagoya University. DDK and IXBL were obtained from the Laboratory of Animal Genetics, School of Agricultural Sciences, Nagoya University. Production colonies were developed and their descendants used for the experiments. Mice were kept under controlled conditions (23.0 ± 1°C, 14L:10D photoperiod) and given continuous access to a pelleted diet (CA-1; Nippon Clea, Tokyo, Japan) and water. All animal procedures were performed according to the Guidelines for Animal Experimentation of Nagoya University.
Mating and Exposure to Stimulus Males
BALB/cA females were caged with stud males and checked daily for a vaginal plug. In the morning when the vaginal plug was found, the female was removed from the stud male and exposed to stimulus males in the exposure cage partitioned by wire netting. The methods of exposure were the same as described previously [8]. The day the vaginal plug was found was considered Day 0 of pregnancy. The animals were killed by cervical dislocation. The females were dissected at Day 14 of pregnancy, and numbers of corpora lutea, implantation sites, and live fetuses were counted.
Administration of Dopamine Agonist
Mice were kept in the animal room maintained at 23.0 ± 1°C and 12L:12D (lights-on 10002200 h). On Day 1 of pregnancy, BALB/cA females mated with stud males were injected i.p. with the dopamine agonist (bromocriptine methanesulfonate; RBI Research Biochemical L.P., Natick, MA) at a dose of 2 mg or 4 mg/kg BW at 0600 h and 2100 h, the times of nocturnal and diurnal prolactin surges [2, 13]. Control groups were treated with saline in the same way. The females were killed as described above and dissected at Days 5 and 14 of pregnancy, and the absence of implantation sites was taken to indicate nonpregnancy. At Day 5, numbers of corpora lutea and implantation sites were counted, and at Day 14, numbers of corpora lutea, implantation sites, and live fetuses were counted for the pregnant females.
Embryo Transfer
Donor embryos were collected on Day 3 of pregnancy from BALB/cA females mated with BALB/cA males and exposed to DDK or BALB/cA males on Day 0 of pregnancy. Embryos were collected by flushing the uterine horns with M2 medium [14] supplemented with 60 µg/ml penicillin G, 50 µg/ml streptomycin, and 4 mg/ml BSA (Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO). Embryos were transferred to the uterine horns of pseudopregnant recipients (BALB/cA females mated with vasectomized BALB/cA males and exposed either to BALB/cA or DDK males at 2.5 days postcoitus under ether (Wako Chemical Co., Tokyo, Japan) anesthesia. Six to nine embryos were transferred into one uterine horn of the recipient. Recipients were killed 2 days after transfer, and the number of implantation sites was counted.
Statistical Analysis
Statistical significance was analyzed by Tukey's studentized range test, Duncan's new multiple range test, or chi-square test. Statistical significance was taken as p < 0.05.
| RESULTS |
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Table 1 shows the reproductive performance of BALB/cA females mated with BALB/cA males or males of other strains and exposed to DDK males or males from the same strain as stud males. BALB/cA females mated with BALB/cA males showed a 100% pregnancy block when exposed to DDK males. BALB/cA females mated with males of other strains and exposed to DDK males had pregnancy rates ranging from 66.6% to 87.5%. The BALB/cA females that had been mated with CBA/J, C3H/HeN, C57BL/6Cr, and IXBL males and exposed to males from the same strain as the stud males showed 75.088.8% pregnancy rates. There were no significant differences in the number of corpora lutea, implantation sites, and live fetuses on Day 14 of pregnancy between the experimental groups exposed to DDK males and the control groups exposed to males from the same strain as the stud males. These results may be interpreted in the following two ways: 1) pheromonal stimuli of the males other than BALB/cA may be similar to those of DDK males, and thus the physiological condition of BALB/cA females that have copulated may not be disturbed by exposure to DDK males; or 2) the viability of the F1 embryos may be such that they can survive the deteriorated condition in the reproductive tract and direct the physiological condition of the BALB/cA females to establishment of pregnancy.
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Effect of Dopamine Agonist
Rosser and colleagues [2] published the method of inducing pregnancy block through administration of dopamine agonist instead of exposing newly copulated females to stimulus males. This method can be used to discriminate whether pregnancy block is due to the effects of stud males or stimulus males. Table 2 shows the results observed on Day 5 of pregnancy in the experiment using the dopamine agonist. BALB/cA females mated with BALB/cA males and treated with dopamine agonist (bromocriptine methanesulfonate, 2 mg/kg i.p.) synchronously with the times of the prolactin surges [2, 13] (0600 h and 2100 h) on Day 1 of pregnancy showed a less than 10% pregnancy rate. On the other hand, BALB/cA females mated with CBA/J, C3H/HeN, and C57BL/6Cr males and treated in the same way showed significantly higher pregnancy rates (45.475.0%). The difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05, Duncan's new multiple range test). However, the pregnant females showed significantly smaller numbers of corpora lutea and implantation sites than the control group (administration of saline). In the experiment using a higher dose of bromocriptine (4 mg/kg), BALB/cA females mated with BALB/cA males showed a 100% pregnancy block. In contrast, BALB/cA females mated with CBA/J, C3H/HeN, and C57BL/6Cr males showed 58.370.0% pregnancy rates, but numbers of corpora lutea and implantation sites were smaller than in the lower-dose groups (p < 0.05, Duncan's new multiple range test), indicating that the effect is slightly stronger at the higher dose. The results of dissection on Day 14 of pregnancy for the higher-dose group are shown in Figure 1. Numbers of live fetuses (2.02.4) were similar to those of implantation sites observed at Day 5 (2.02.1) and Day 14 (2.22.8) of pregnancy, indicating that embryonic losses rarely occurred after Day 5.
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Embryo Transfer
Morulae and blastocysts from BALB/cA females mated with BALB/cA males and exposed to either BALB/cA or DDK males were transferred to BALB/cA recipients exposed to either BALB/cA or DDK males, and implantation sites were examined on Day 5 of pregnancy (2 days after transfer). The results of three kinds of experiments are shown in Table 3. Pregnancy rate and implantation rate were 75% (9 of 12) and 39.4% (54 of 137), respectively, in experiment 1, and 53.3% (8 of 15) and 20.8% (33 of 159), respectively, in experiment 2. The values were 10.0% (1 of 10) and 3.1% (3 of 96), respectively, in experiment 3, in which embryos from the BALB/cA donor females exposed to DDK males were transferred to BALB/cA pseudopregnant females exposed to BALB/cA males. Implantation rate in experiment 3 was significantly different (p > 0.05, chi-square test) from those in experiments 1 and 2. These results indicate that transfer of embryos grown in less optimal uterine conditions into the undisturbed reproductive tract of BALB/cA females resulted in a low pregnancy rate. In contrast, a higher pregnancy rate could be obtained when embryos grown in the undisturbed condition were transferred to recipient females with a uterine condition negatively altered by exposure to DDK males.
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| DISCUSSION |
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To discriminate between these two possibilities, two experiments were performed. First, pharmacological induction of pregnancy block with a dopamine agonist (bromocriptine) was carried out. Almost all BALB/cA females mated with BALB/cA males showed pregnancy block when treated with the dopamine agonist. In contrast, BALB/cA females mated with alien males showed significantly higher pregnancy rates, although the rates were slightly lower than those for the groups exposed to DDK males (comparison between Tables 1 and 2). The number of corpora lutea, implantation sites, and live fetuses at Day 14 of pregnancy was also significantly smaller (comparison between Table 1 and Fig. 1, p < 0.01, Duncan's new multiple range test). Second, a higher pregnancy rate was obtained when embryos grown in the normal condition were transferred into recipients with a uterine condition deteriorated as a result of exposure to DDK males; and a low pregnancy rate was observed when embryos grown in the deteriorated condition were transferred into recipients with undisturbed uterine condition. Considering these two possibilities on the basis of the results, the second possibility may be supported, and it is suggested that the viability of the F1 embryos is stronger than that of BALB/cA embryos, indicating that genotypes of embryos must be taken into consideration in investigations of pregnancy block.
The mechanisms for pregnancy block in mice, including male pheromones and sensitivity of females, have been investigated [4, 5]. It is generally accepted that failure in the development of corpora lutea due to suppression of prolactin secretion is the cause of pregnancy block, and Rajendren and Dominic [15] have reported that luteal failure in newly mated females is prevented only when administration of progesterone is begun early during the male exposure period. However, the present study showed that the embryonic genotype or viability of the embryos is also an important factor involved in the occurrence of pregnancy block. It is inferred that the BALB/cA embryos are more sensitive than F1 embryos to a deteriorated condition in the reproductive tracts of BALB/cA females. Wang et al. [16] have reported a similar strain difference in the pregnancy block by passive immunization against progesterone; i.e., the BALB/cA strain is more sensitive to administration of the antibody to progesterone than the CBA/J strain. It is possible that the strain difference may be attributable to the sensitivity of embryos to the altered condition in the female reproductive tract; i.e., BALB/cA embryos may be more sensitive than CBA embryos.
Gene expression and metabolism in early embryos have been shown to be dependent on the genotype [17], and it is well known that implantation is established with the interaction of embryos and the uterine wall, i.e., the signals from embryos and the receptivity of the uterus. Estrogen is necessary to make the uterine environment receptive for embryos [18] and also seems to promote embryonic development [19]. Nitric oxide (NO) production at the morula and blastocyst stages is regulated by estrogen and appears to be required for normal embryonic development [20]. This embryonic NO may act as an implantation signal. Cell adhesion molecules also play important roles in the interaction of embryos and uterine epithelium or stroma cells at early stages of pregnancy [21]. In mice, embryo attachment induces local maternal epithelial retraction and apoptosis [22]. In humans, also, protrusive penetration of trophoblast occurs through the epithelium [23]. Strong signals from the embryo to the uterine epithelium and stromal cells may in turn be sent to the ovaries and stimulate development of corpora lutea.
The survival rate of F1 embryos was lower in the bromocriptine-treated BALB/cA females than in the BALB/cA females exposed to DDK males. Besides the blocking effect of prolactin and thyroid-stimulating hormone release [24], bromocriptine may have some other effects to alter the physiology of female mice that have just copulated, although it is known to have fewest side effects in humans [24]. It may be inferred that the condition in the reproductive tract of BALB/cA females is more severely disturbed by administration of bromocriptine than exposure to DDK males, and the embryos may incur more damage in bromocriptine-treated females. In view of the foregoing discussion, it would be interesting to investigate how development of F1 embryos differs from that of BALB/cA embryos in the deteriorated reproductive tract of BALB/cA females and to compare their interaction with uterine epithelium or stromal cells. In nature, pregnancy block has an adaptive significance for a newly arriving male to increase his reproductive success by terminating the pregnancy of females that have been impregnated by previous males. In contrast, a genetic factor conferring strong viability to embryos during implantation stages is considered to have a counteracting effect in favor of previous males by preventing pregnancy block.
| FOOTNOTES |
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2 Correspondence: FAX: 81 52 789 4012; w16341a{at}nuagrl.agr.nagoya-u.ac.jp ![]()
Accepted: March 5, 1999.
Received: November 9, 1998.
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