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Peri-Ovulatory Supplementation of L-Ornithine to Increase Reproductive Success in Aged Mice

In all mammalian species examined thus far, the ovaries produce a burst of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) and putrescine during ovulation or after application of a bolus of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). Aged mice are deficient in this peri-ovulatory ODC and putrescine burst. Moreover, peri-ovulatory putrescine supplementation in aged mice increases egg quality and reduces miscarriage rates. These studies suggest that peri-ovulatory putrescine supplementation may be a simple and effective therapy for reproductive aging for women. However, putrescine has never been used in humans and, currently no pure source of putrescine is suitable for human trials. Given that ODC is highly expressed in the ovaries during ovulation but otherwise exhibits low activity in most tissues, we hypothesized that L-ornithine, the substrate of ODC, might be a better alternative. In this study, we have demonstrated that systemic application of L-ornithine increased ovarian putrescine levels; the increase was restricted to animals that had been injected with hCG. Furthermore, L-ornithine specifically increased ovarian putrescine levels without affecting putrescine levels in most other tissues. Unfortunately, thus far peri-ovulatory L-ornithine supplementation in mouse drinking water produced mixed effects on reproductive outcome in aged mice. Therefore, our studies demonstrated the potential of L-ornithine supplementation as a possible therapy for aging-related infertility, but further work is required to produce an effective application method.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/38341
Date29 October 2018
CreatorsLavergne, Christopher Leon Joseph
ContributorsLiu, Xingquan Johne
PublisherUniversité d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Source SetsUniversité d’Ottawa
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Formatapplication/pdf

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