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No Evidence for a Trade-Off between Reproductive Investment and Immunity in a Rodent

Life history theory assumes there are trade-offs between competing functions such as reproduction and immunity. Although well studied in birds, studies of the trade-offs between reproduction and immunity in small mammals are scarce. Here we examined whether reduced immunity is a consequence of repro...

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Autores principales: Xu, Yan-Chao, Yang, Deng-Bao, Wang, De-Hua
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3359356/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22649512
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037182
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author Xu, Yan-Chao
Yang, Deng-Bao
Wang, De-Hua
author_facet Xu, Yan-Chao
Yang, Deng-Bao
Wang, De-Hua
author_sort Xu, Yan-Chao
collection PubMed
description Life history theory assumes there are trade-offs between competing functions such as reproduction and immunity. Although well studied in birds, studies of the trade-offs between reproduction and immunity in small mammals are scarce. Here we examined whether reduced immunity is a consequence of reproductive effort in lactating Brandt's voles (Lasiopodomys brandtii). Specifically, we tested the effects of lactation on immune function (Experiment I). The results showed that food intake and resting metabolic rate (RMR) were higher in lactating voles (6≤ litter size ≤8) than that in non-reproductive voles. Contrary to our expectation, lactating voles also had higher levels of serum total Immunoglobulin G (IgG) and anti-keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) IgG and no change in phytohemagglutinin (PHA) response and anti-KLH Immunoglobulin M (IgM) compared with non-reproductive voles, suggesting improved rather than reduced immune function. To further test the effect of differences in reproductive investment on immunity, we compared the responses between natural large (n≥8) and small litter size (n≤6) (Experiment II) and manipulated large (11–13) and small litter size (2–3) (Experiment III). During peak lactation, acquired immunity (PHA response, anti-KLH IgG and anti-KLH IgM) was not significantly different between voles raising large or small litters in both experiments, despite the measured difference in reproductive investment (greater litter size, litter mass, RMR and food intake in the voles raising larger litters). Total IgG was higher in voles with natural large litter size than those with natural small litter size, but decreased in the enlarged litter size group compared with control and reduced group. Our results showed that immune function is not suppressed to compensate the high energy demands during lactation in Brandt's voles and contrasting the situation in birds, is unlikely to be an important aspect mediating the trade-off between reproduction and survival.
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spelling pubmed-33593562012-05-30 No Evidence for a Trade-Off between Reproductive Investment and Immunity in a Rodent Xu, Yan-Chao Yang, Deng-Bao Wang, De-Hua PLoS One Research Article Life history theory assumes there are trade-offs between competing functions such as reproduction and immunity. Although well studied in birds, studies of the trade-offs between reproduction and immunity in small mammals are scarce. Here we examined whether reduced immunity is a consequence of reproductive effort in lactating Brandt's voles (Lasiopodomys brandtii). Specifically, we tested the effects of lactation on immune function (Experiment I). The results showed that food intake and resting metabolic rate (RMR) were higher in lactating voles (6≤ litter size ≤8) than that in non-reproductive voles. Contrary to our expectation, lactating voles also had higher levels of serum total Immunoglobulin G (IgG) and anti-keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) IgG and no change in phytohemagglutinin (PHA) response and anti-KLH Immunoglobulin M (IgM) compared with non-reproductive voles, suggesting improved rather than reduced immune function. To further test the effect of differences in reproductive investment on immunity, we compared the responses between natural large (n≥8) and small litter size (n≤6) (Experiment II) and manipulated large (11–13) and small litter size (2–3) (Experiment III). During peak lactation, acquired immunity (PHA response, anti-KLH IgG and anti-KLH IgM) was not significantly different between voles raising large or small litters in both experiments, despite the measured difference in reproductive investment (greater litter size, litter mass, RMR and food intake in the voles raising larger litters). Total IgG was higher in voles with natural large litter size than those with natural small litter size, but decreased in the enlarged litter size group compared with control and reduced group. Our results showed that immune function is not suppressed to compensate the high energy demands during lactation in Brandt's voles and contrasting the situation in birds, is unlikely to be an important aspect mediating the trade-off between reproduction and survival. Public Library of Science 2012-05-23 /pmc/articles/PMC3359356/ /pubmed/22649512 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037182 Text en Xu 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, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Xu, Yan-Chao
Yang, Deng-Bao
Wang, De-Hua
No Evidence for a Trade-Off between Reproductive Investment and Immunity in a Rodent
title No Evidence for a Trade-Off between Reproductive Investment and Immunity in a Rodent
title_full No Evidence for a Trade-Off between Reproductive Investment and Immunity in a Rodent
title_fullStr No Evidence for a Trade-Off between Reproductive Investment and Immunity in a Rodent
title_full_unstemmed No Evidence for a Trade-Off between Reproductive Investment and Immunity in a Rodent
title_short No Evidence for a Trade-Off between Reproductive Investment and Immunity in a Rodent
title_sort no evidence for a trade-off between reproductive investment and immunity in a rodent
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3359356/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22649512
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037182
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