Cargando…

Swimming suppresses hepatic vitellogenesis in European female silver eels as shown by expression of the estrogen receptor 1, vitellogenin1 and vitellogenin2 in the liver

BACKGROUND: When European silver eels (Anguilla anguilla) venture into the Atlantic Ocean for their 6,000 km semelparous spawning run to the Sargasso Sea, they are still in a prepubertal stage. Further sexual development appears to be blocked by dopaminergic inhibition of hypothalamus and pituitary...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Palstra, Arjan P, Schnabel, Denhi, Nieveen, Maaike C, Spaink, Herman P, van den Thillart, Guido
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2847565/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20302623
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1477-7827-8-27
_version_ 1782179581874143232
author Palstra, Arjan P
Schnabel, Denhi
Nieveen, Maaike C
Spaink, Herman P
van den Thillart, Guido
author_facet Palstra, Arjan P
Schnabel, Denhi
Nieveen, Maaike C
Spaink, Herman P
van den Thillart, Guido
author_sort Palstra, Arjan P
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: When European silver eels (Anguilla anguilla) venture into the Atlantic Ocean for their 6,000 km semelparous spawning run to the Sargasso Sea, they are still in a prepubertal stage. Further sexual development appears to be blocked by dopaminergic inhibition of hypothalamus and pituitary activity. Recently, we found that swimming for several weeks in freshwater stimulated the incorporation of fat droplets in the oocytes. So, it was hypothesized that long term swimming in seawater would release the inhibition further and would also stimulate the production of vitellogenin by the liver. METHODS: For this study a swim-flume was constructed to allow simulated migration of migratory female silver eels for 3 months (1,420 km) in natural seawater at 20 degrees C. Primers were designed for polymerase chain reactions to measure the mRNA expression of estrogen receptor 1 (esr1), vitellogenin1 (vtg1) and vitellogenin2 (vtg2) genes in the liver of European female silver eels. RESULTS: In comparison to resting eels, swimming eels showed a diminished expression of esr1, vtg1 and vtg2 in the liver. They also had lower plasma calcium (Ca; indicative of vitellogenin) levels in their blood. This showed that vitellogenesis is more strongly suppressed in swimming than in resting eels. However, when eels were subsequently stimulated by 3 weekly carp pituitary extract injections, the expression of the same genes and plasma levels of Ca strongly increased in both groups to similar levels, thus equalizing the initial differences between resting and swimming. CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that vitellogenesis remains suppressed during resting and even more during swimming. The fact that swimming stimulates fat deposition in the oocytes but suppresses vitellogenesis indicates that these events are separated in nature and occur sequentially. Swimming-suppressed vitellogenesis may imply that in nature eels undergo vitellogenesis and final maturation near or at the spawning grounds.
format Text
id pubmed-2847565
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2010
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-28475652010-03-31 Swimming suppresses hepatic vitellogenesis in European female silver eels as shown by expression of the estrogen receptor 1, vitellogenin1 and vitellogenin2 in the liver Palstra, Arjan P Schnabel, Denhi Nieveen, Maaike C Spaink, Herman P van den Thillart, Guido Reprod Biol Endocrinol Research BACKGROUND: When European silver eels (Anguilla anguilla) venture into the Atlantic Ocean for their 6,000 km semelparous spawning run to the Sargasso Sea, they are still in a prepubertal stage. Further sexual development appears to be blocked by dopaminergic inhibition of hypothalamus and pituitary activity. Recently, we found that swimming for several weeks in freshwater stimulated the incorporation of fat droplets in the oocytes. So, it was hypothesized that long term swimming in seawater would release the inhibition further and would also stimulate the production of vitellogenin by the liver. METHODS: For this study a swim-flume was constructed to allow simulated migration of migratory female silver eels for 3 months (1,420 km) in natural seawater at 20 degrees C. Primers were designed for polymerase chain reactions to measure the mRNA expression of estrogen receptor 1 (esr1), vitellogenin1 (vtg1) and vitellogenin2 (vtg2) genes in the liver of European female silver eels. RESULTS: In comparison to resting eels, swimming eels showed a diminished expression of esr1, vtg1 and vtg2 in the liver. They also had lower plasma calcium (Ca; indicative of vitellogenin) levels in their blood. This showed that vitellogenesis is more strongly suppressed in swimming than in resting eels. However, when eels were subsequently stimulated by 3 weekly carp pituitary extract injections, the expression of the same genes and plasma levels of Ca strongly increased in both groups to similar levels, thus equalizing the initial differences between resting and swimming. CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that vitellogenesis remains suppressed during resting and even more during swimming. The fact that swimming stimulates fat deposition in the oocytes but suppresses vitellogenesis indicates that these events are separated in nature and occur sequentially. Swimming-suppressed vitellogenesis may imply that in nature eels undergo vitellogenesis and final maturation near or at the spawning grounds. BioMed Central 2010-03-19 /pmc/articles/PMC2847565/ /pubmed/20302623 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1477-7827-8-27 Text en Copyright ©2010 Palstra et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Palstra, Arjan P
Schnabel, Denhi
Nieveen, Maaike C
Spaink, Herman P
van den Thillart, Guido
Swimming suppresses hepatic vitellogenesis in European female silver eels as shown by expression of the estrogen receptor 1, vitellogenin1 and vitellogenin2 in the liver
title Swimming suppresses hepatic vitellogenesis in European female silver eels as shown by expression of the estrogen receptor 1, vitellogenin1 and vitellogenin2 in the liver
title_full Swimming suppresses hepatic vitellogenesis in European female silver eels as shown by expression of the estrogen receptor 1, vitellogenin1 and vitellogenin2 in the liver
title_fullStr Swimming suppresses hepatic vitellogenesis in European female silver eels as shown by expression of the estrogen receptor 1, vitellogenin1 and vitellogenin2 in the liver
title_full_unstemmed Swimming suppresses hepatic vitellogenesis in European female silver eels as shown by expression of the estrogen receptor 1, vitellogenin1 and vitellogenin2 in the liver
title_short Swimming suppresses hepatic vitellogenesis in European female silver eels as shown by expression of the estrogen receptor 1, vitellogenin1 and vitellogenin2 in the liver
title_sort swimming suppresses hepatic vitellogenesis in european female silver eels as shown by expression of the estrogen receptor 1, vitellogenin1 and vitellogenin2 in the liver
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2847565/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20302623
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1477-7827-8-27
work_keys_str_mv AT palstraarjanp swimmingsuppresseshepaticvitellogenesisineuropeanfemalesilvereelsasshownbyexpressionoftheestrogenreceptor1vitellogenin1andvitellogenin2intheliver
AT schnabeldenhi swimmingsuppresseshepaticvitellogenesisineuropeanfemalesilvereelsasshownbyexpressionoftheestrogenreceptor1vitellogenin1andvitellogenin2intheliver
AT nieveenmaaikec swimmingsuppresseshepaticvitellogenesisineuropeanfemalesilvereelsasshownbyexpressionoftheestrogenreceptor1vitellogenin1andvitellogenin2intheliver
AT spainkhermanp swimmingsuppresseshepaticvitellogenesisineuropeanfemalesilvereelsasshownbyexpressionoftheestrogenreceptor1vitellogenin1andvitellogenin2intheliver
AT vandenthillartguido swimmingsuppresseshepaticvitellogenesisineuropeanfemalesilvereelsasshownbyexpressionoftheestrogenreceptor1vitellogenin1andvitellogenin2intheliver