Abstract
BackgroundNutrition intake during growth strongly influences ovarian follicle development and egg laying in chicken hens, yet the underlying endocrine regulatory mechanism is still poorly understood. The relevant research progress is hindered by difficulties in detection of leptin gene and its expression in the chicken. However, a functional leptin receptor (LEPR) is present in the chicken which has been implicated to play a regulatory role in ovarian follicle development and egg laying. The present study targeted LEPR by immunizing against its extracellular domain (ECD), and examined the resultant ovarian follicle development and egg-laying rate in chicken hens.MethodsHens that have been immunized four times with chicken LEPR ECD were assessed for their egg laying rate and feed intake, numbers of ovarian follicles, gene expression profiles, serum lipid parameters, as well as STAT3 signaling pathway.ResultsAdministrations of cLEPR ECD antigen resulted in marked reductions in laying rate that over time eventually recovered to the levels exhibited by the Control hens. Together with the decrease in egg laying rate, cLEPR-immunized hens also exhibited significant reductions in feed intake, plasma concentrations of glucose, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein, and low-density lipoprotein. Parallelled by reductions in feed intake, mRNA gene expression levels of AgRP, orexin, and NPY were down regulated, but of POMC, MC4R and lepR up-regulated in Immunized hen hypothalamus. cLEPR-immunization also promoted expressions of apoptotic genes such as caspase3 in theca and fas in granulosa layer, but severely depressed IGF-I expression in both theca and granulosa layers.ConclusionsImmunization against cLEPR ECD in egg-laying hens generated antibodies that mimic leptin bioactivity by enhancing leptin receptor transduction. This up-regulated apoptotic gene expression in ovarian follicles, negatively regulated the expression of genes that promote follicular development and hormone secretion, leading to follicle atresia and interruption of egg laying. The inhibition of progesterone secretion due to failure of follicle development also lowered feed intake. These results also demonstrate that immunization against cLEPR ECD may be utilized as a tool for studying bio-functions of cLEPR.
Highlights
Nutrition intake during growth strongly influences ovarian follicle development and egg laying in chicken hens, yet the underlying endocrine regulatory mechanism is still poorly understood
Anti-cLEPR antibody titre Antibody titers were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) as optical density (OD) value at 450 nm
Through immunization approach, we have shown that generating anti-cLEPR extracellular domain (ECD) antibody caused ovarian follicle atresia by up-regulating the expression of apoptotic genes, and down-regulating the expression of prodevelopment genes, caused decreases in egg laying in chicken hens
Summary
Nutrition intake during growth strongly influences ovarian follicle development and egg laying in chicken hens, yet the underlying endocrine regulatory mechanism is still poorly understood. The relevant research progress is hindered by difficulties in detection of leptin gene and its expression in the chicken. A functional leptin receptor (LEPR) is present in the chicken which has been implicated to play a regulatory role in ovarian follicle development and egg laying. The present study targeted LEPR by immunizing against its extracellular domain (ECD), and examined the resultant ovarian follicle development and egg-laying rate in chicken hens. Difficulties in detecting leptin gene and products, together with the requirement for large quantities of leptin hormone in the case of administration studies, have hindered research into regulation of reproductive activities by leptin in chicken hens
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