Urinary steroid and gonadotropin excretion across the reproductive cycle in female Wied's black tufted-ear marmosets (Callithrix kuhli)

Abstract

Details of the endocrinology of reproduction in the genus Callithrix are known only for the common marmoset, C. jacchus. This paper presents the patterns of urinary pregnandiol‐3‐glucuronide (PdG), urinary estrone conjugates (E1C), and gonadotropin excretion throughout the reproductive cycle of Wied's black tufted‐ear marmoset (C. kuhli) as determined via steroid conjugate enzyme immunoassays (EIA) and gonadotropin radioimmunoassays (RIA). Postpartum ovulation occurred at 13.6 ± 1.2 days after parturition (n = 12) and was characterized by low PdG and E1C concentrations accompanied by a spike in luteinizing hormone (LH)/chorionic gonadotropin (CG) concentration. After conception, PdG concentrations increased dramatically until they dropped to periovulatory concentrations in the third trimester of pregnancy. Mean PdG concentrations in the first and second trimesters (33.7 ± 8.4 and 39.0 ± 10.9 μg/mg creatinine, respectively) were three times that of third trimester concentrations (11.7 ± 1.4 μg/mg Cr; n = 8). Urinary concentrations of E1C rose more gradually during pregnancy and remained higher prepartum than urinary concentrations of PdG. Urinary gonadotropin concentrations also increased after conception (first trimester concentrations = 24.5 ± 4.5 ng/mg Cr) and continued to increase in the second trimester (51.4 ± 7.6 ng/mg Cr), until they finally decreased in the third trimester (mean = 7.9 ± 1.4 ng/mg Cr; n = 8). The interbirth interval was 156.3 ± 2.9 days (n = 6), with a gestation of 143.1 ± 1.6 days (n = 8). Nonconceptive cycle length was 24.9 ± 0.6 days (n = 4). The results of this study suggest strong similarities in reproductive parameters in the genus Callithrix. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Assessment of luteinizing hormone and prolactin immunoactivity in Asian and African elephant urine using assays validated for serum

“…Glycerol itself did not interfere with antigen/antibody binding, as determined by similar parallelism and mass recovery analyses of samples spiked with exogenous hormone standards to results from samples without glycerol. Many studies have evaluated urinary protein hormones, like LH and prolactin, often using neat urine (e.g., Czekala et al, 1988;French et al, 1992French et al, , 1999Ziegler et al, 1993;Miller and Soules, 1996;Robeck et al, 2004Robeck et al, , 2005. However, when no immunoactivity was observed in neat samples, either in longitudinal samples or as a result of parallelism tests on urine pools, efforts were made to concentrate samples to ensure the problem was not due to sample dilution.…”

Elevated urinary testosterone excretion and decreased maternal caregiving effort in marmosets when conception occurs during the period of infant dependence

“…A noninvasive, stress-free collection procedure previously described (French et al, 1996) was utilized. Urine samples were collected between 0600 and 0800 h, centrifuged at 7000 rpm for 2 min to remove detritus, and the supernatant was then transferred to a clean mini-vial for storage.…”

“…All hormone concentrations were corrected for the creatinine concentration of each sample. Creatinine concentrations were measured by a modified Jaffé end-point assay (Tietz, 1976), which was previously described and validated for C. kuhlii (French et al, 1996).…”

“…French et al (1996) previously described patterns of urinary PdG excretion across the reproductive cycle in C. kuhlii, and we used these parameters to identify the postpartum week in which conception occurred. While there were individual differences in absolute urinary PdG concentrations, qualitative changes in PdG profiles across the postpartum period were similar among females in each condition.…”

“…A postpartum ovulation occurs 2-4 weeks following birth (French et al, 1996;Ziegler et al, 1990) so that females can conceive while nursing, carrying, and otherwise caring for their current litter of (typically) twin infants, which at birth can weigh as much as 15-25% of the female's own body weight (Kleiman, 1977). In every species studied to date, females share the responsibility of infant care with members of their family or social group (e.g., Cleveland and Snowdon, 1984;Goldizen, 1987;Snowdon, 1996).…”