Abstract
Luteinizing hormone (LH) is one of the main pituitary hormones that regulate ovulation, however its role has not been studied in giant panda. In this study, we developed an ELISA method for the detection of panda urinary LH. We analyzed urinary hormones of 24 female pandas during 36 breeding periods, we found females could easily be impregnated if the first mating occurred within 10 hours after LH peak. We also found the patterns of the ratios of urinary LH and progestagen in pandas that bred and successfully gave birth were significantly different from those that bred but failed to give birth. These data was the first to provide the urinary LH profiles during the estrous and gestational periods in pandas, and demonstrated that the appearance of the urinary LH peak indicated the timing of ovulation. The LH detection together with estrogen analysis makes the window for successful mating narrower than previously reported. Moreover, detection of urinary LH and progestagen can be used to discriminate between pregnancies and pseudopregnancies/miscarriages in the species. Thus, our findings suggest that LH not only plays a critical role in regulating ovulation but also plays an important role in maintaining pregnancy in the giant panda.
Highlights
Luteinizing hormone (LH) is one of the main pituitary hormones that regulate ovulation, its role has not been studied in giant panda
Accurate monitoring of the estrous cycle to pinpoint the time of ovulation is a key aspect for giant panda breeding research because the timing of ovulation is essential for the success of timed mating or artificial insemination (AI)
The accuracy of the assay was 105.6 + 0.132% (Table 2) and the equation was y = 41.17 + 0.76x. These data demonstrate the effectiveness of our LH enzyme-linked immunosorbent analysis (ELISA) technique for detecting LH in giant panda urine
Summary
Luteinizing hormone (LH) is one of the main pituitary hormones that regulate ovulation, its role has not been studied in giant panda. The analysis of urinary metabolites of estrogen and progestagen currently used as the main method to understand the estrous cycle of giant pandas[4,5,6,7], this type of analysis alone has not been adequate in determining the precise timing of ovulation. We first developed a specific ELISA for detecting giant panda LH in urine. Using this method, we analyzed the variations of urinary LH during periods of estrus and pregnancy. We combined the LH results with changes in urinary estrogen and progestagen to explore the role that the determination of urinary LH can have in giant panda breeding
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