Development of a Highly Sensitive ELISA for Measurement of FSH in Serum, Plasma, and Whole Blood in Mice.

Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) regulates gonadal function and fertility. Measurement of FSH in bodily fluids and tissues is possible with radioimmunoassays and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). Recently, several novel assays were developed to measure pituitary hormones including growth hormone, prolactin, and luteinizing hormone in mice from small sample volumes.

Luteinizing Hormone is an effective replacement for hCG to induce ovulation in Xenopus.

Injection of human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) directly into the dorsal lymph sac of Xenopus is a commonly used protocol for induction of ovulation, but recent shortages in the stocks of commercially available hCG as well as lack of a well tested alternative have resulted in frustrating experimental delays in laboratories that predominantly use Xenopus in their research. Mammalian Luteinizing Hormones (LH) share structural similarity, functional equivalency, and bind the same receptor as hCG; this suggests that LH may serve as a good alternative to hCG for promoting ovulation in Xenopus. LH has been found to induce maturation of Xenopus oocytes in vitro, but whether it can be used to induce ovulation in vivo has not been examined.

Loss of BMAL1 in ovarian steroidogenic cells results in implantation failure in female mice.

The circadian clock plays a significant role in many aspects of female reproductive biology, including estrous cycling, ovulation, embryonic implantation, onset of puberty, and parturition. In an effort to link cell-specific circadian clocks to their specific roles in female reproduction, we used the promoter that controls expression of Steroidogenic Factor-1 (SF1) to drive Cre-recombinase-mediated deletion of the brain muscle arnt-like 1 (Bmal1) gene, known to encode an essential component of the circadian clock (SF1-Bmal1(-/-)). The resultant SF1-Bmal1(-/-) females display embryonic implantation failure, which is rescued by progesterone supplementation, or bilateral or unilateral transplantation of wild-type ovaries into SF1-Bmal1(-/-) dams.