Ovarian down Regulation by GnRF Vaccination Decreases Reproductive Tract Tumour Size in Female White and Greater One-Horned Rhinoceroses

Ovarian down Regulation by GnRF Vaccination Decreases Reproductive Tract Tumour Size in Female White and Greater One-Horned Rhinoceroses

Reproductive tract tumours, specifically leiomyoma, are commonly found in female rhinoceroses. Similar to humans, tumour growth in rhinoceroses is thought to be sex hormone dependent. Tumours can form and expand from the onset of ovarian activity at puberty until the cessation of sex-steroid influen...

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Main Authors: Hermes, Robert, Schwarzenberger, Franz, Göritz, Frank, Oh, Serena, Fernandes, Teresa, Bernardino, Rui, Leclerc, Antoine, Greunz, Eva, Mathew, Abraham, Forsyth, Sarah, Saragusty, Joseph, Hildebrandt, Thomas Bernd
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science 2016
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4942122/
id pubmed-4942122
recordtype oai_dc
spelling pubmed-49421222016-08-01 Ovarian down Regulation by GnRF Vaccination Decreases Reproductive Tract Tumour Size in Female White and Greater One-Horned Rhinoceroses Hermes, Robert Schwarzenberger, Franz Göritz, Frank Oh, Serena Fernandes, Teresa Bernardino, Rui Leclerc, Antoine Greunz, Eva Mathew, Abraham Forsyth, Sarah Saragusty, Joseph Hildebrandt, Thomas Bernd Research Article Reproductive tract tumours, specifically leiomyoma, are commonly found in female rhinoceroses. Similar to humans, tumour growth in rhinoceroses is thought to be sex hormone dependent. Tumours can form and expand from the onset of ovarian activity at puberty until the cessation of sex-steroid influences at senescence. Extensive tumour growth results in infertility. The aim of this study was to down regulate reproductive function of tumour-diseased and infertile females to stop further tumour growth using a Gonadotropin releasing factor (GnRF) vaccine. Four infertile southern white (Ceratotherium simum simum) and three Greater one-horned rhinoceroses (rhinoceros unicornis) with active ovaries and 2.7 ± 0.9 and 14.0 ± 1.5 reproductive tract tumours respectively were vaccinated against GnRF (Improvac®, Zoetis, Germany) at 0, 4 and 16 weeks and re-boostered every 6–8 months thereafter. After GnRF vaccination ovarian and luteal activity was suppressed in all treated females. Three months after vaccination the size of the ovaries, the number of follicles and the size of the largest follicle were significantly reduced (P<0.03). Reproductive tract tumours decreased significantly in diameter (Greater-one horned rhino: P<0.0001; white rhino: P<0.01), presumably as a result of reduced sex-steroid influence. The calculated tumour volumes were reduced by 50.8 ± 10.9% in Greater one-horned and 48.6 ± 12.9% in white rhinoceroses. In conclusion, GnRF vaccine effectively down regulated reproductive function and decreased the size of reproductive tract tumours in female rhinoceros. Our work is the first to use down regulation of reproductive function as a symptomatic treatment against benign reproductive tumour disease in a wildlife species. Nonetheless, full reversibility and rhinoceros fertility following GnRF vaccination warrants further evaluation. Public Library of Science 2016-07-12 /pmc/articles/PMC4942122/ /pubmed/27403662 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157963 Text en © 2016 Hermes et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
repository_type Open Access Journal
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building NCBI PubMed
collection Online Access
language English
format Online
author Hermes, Robert
Schwarzenberger, Franz
Göritz, Frank
Oh, Serena
Fernandes, Teresa
Bernardino, Rui
Leclerc, Antoine
Greunz, Eva
Mathew, Abraham
Forsyth, Sarah
Saragusty, Joseph
Hildebrandt, Thomas Bernd
spellingShingle Hermes, Robert
Schwarzenberger, Franz
Göritz, Frank
Oh, Serena
Fernandes, Teresa
Bernardino, Rui
Leclerc, Antoine
Greunz, Eva
Mathew, Abraham
Forsyth, Sarah
Saragusty, Joseph
Hildebrandt, Thomas Bernd
Ovarian down Regulation by GnRF Vaccination Decreases Reproductive Tract Tumour Size in Female White and Greater One-Horned Rhinoceroses
author_facet Hermes, Robert
Schwarzenberger, Franz
Göritz, Frank
Oh, Serena
Fernandes, Teresa
Bernardino, Rui
Leclerc, Antoine
Greunz, Eva
Mathew, Abraham
Forsyth, Sarah
Saragusty, Joseph
Hildebrandt, Thomas Bernd
author_sort Hermes, Robert
title Ovarian down Regulation by GnRF Vaccination Decreases Reproductive Tract Tumour Size in Female White and Greater One-Horned Rhinoceroses
title_short Ovarian down Regulation by GnRF Vaccination Decreases Reproductive Tract Tumour Size in Female White and Greater One-Horned Rhinoceroses
title_full Ovarian down Regulation by GnRF Vaccination Decreases Reproductive Tract Tumour Size in Female White and Greater One-Horned Rhinoceroses
title_fullStr Ovarian down Regulation by GnRF Vaccination Decreases Reproductive Tract Tumour Size in Female White and Greater One-Horned Rhinoceroses
title_full_unstemmed Ovarian down Regulation by GnRF Vaccination Decreases Reproductive Tract Tumour Size in Female White and Greater One-Horned Rhinoceroses
title_sort ovarian down regulation by gnrf vaccination decreases reproductive tract tumour size in female white and greater one-horned rhinoceroses
description Reproductive tract tumours, specifically leiomyoma, are commonly found in female rhinoceroses. Similar to humans, tumour growth in rhinoceroses is thought to be sex hormone dependent. Tumours can form and expand from the onset of ovarian activity at puberty until the cessation of sex-steroid influences at senescence. Extensive tumour growth results in infertility. The aim of this study was to down regulate reproductive function of tumour-diseased and infertile females to stop further tumour growth using a Gonadotropin releasing factor (GnRF) vaccine. Four infertile southern white (Ceratotherium simum simum) and three Greater one-horned rhinoceroses (rhinoceros unicornis) with active ovaries and 2.7 ± 0.9 and 14.0 ± 1.5 reproductive tract tumours respectively were vaccinated against GnRF (Improvac®, Zoetis, Germany) at 0, 4 and 16 weeks and re-boostered every 6–8 months thereafter. After GnRF vaccination ovarian and luteal activity was suppressed in all treated females. Three months after vaccination the size of the ovaries, the number of follicles and the size of the largest follicle were significantly reduced (P<0.03). Reproductive tract tumours decreased significantly in diameter (Greater-one horned rhino: P<0.0001; white rhino: P<0.01), presumably as a result of reduced sex-steroid influence. The calculated tumour volumes were reduced by 50.8 ± 10.9% in Greater one-horned and 48.6 ± 12.9% in white rhinoceroses. In conclusion, GnRF vaccine effectively down regulated reproductive function and decreased the size of reproductive tract tumours in female rhinoceros. Our work is the first to use down regulation of reproductive function as a symptomatic treatment against benign reproductive tumour disease in a wildlife species. Nonetheless, full reversibility and rhinoceros fertility following GnRF vaccination warrants further evaluation.
publisher Public Library of Science
publishDate 2016
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4942122/
_version_ 1613607991101095936

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