Relationships among body composition, circulating concentrations of leptin and follistatin, and the onset of puberty and fertility in young female sheep
The onset of puberty depends on the attainment of critical body mass, so should also be affected by increases in the rate of accumulation of muscle and adipose tissue. Adipose tissue and reproduction are linked by leptin. For muscle, a link has not yet been identified, although one possibility is follistatin. We assessed the relationships among circulating concentrations of follistatin and leptin and the rates of growth and accumulation of muscle and fat during pubertal development in female sheep. We used 326 animals with known phenotypic values for live weight (LW), depths of eye muscle (EMD) and fat (FAT), and known breeding values at post-weaning age for body mass (PWT) and depths of eye muscle (PEMD) and fat (PFAT). Leptin concentration was positively correlated with values for EMD, PEMD, FAT, PFAT, LW and PWT (P<0.001), whereas follistatin concentration was negatively correlated with values for EMD and PWT (P<0.001), and PEMD (P<0.01) and FAT (P<0.05). Leptin concentration was negatively related to age and positively related to live weight at first oestrus and the proportion of females that attained puberty (P≤0.05), and to fertility and reproductive rate (P<0.01). Follistatin concentration was negatively related to live weight at first oestrus and to fertility (P<0.01) and reproductive rate (P<0.05). There were positive correlations (P<0.001) between muscle accumulation and leptin concentration, and between muscle accumulation and reproductive performance. We conclude that leptin and follistatin are probably both involved in effects of accelerated accumulation of muscle and adipose tissues on the onset of puberty.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
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Other
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Unknown
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Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 7. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 December 2014.
All research outputs
#4,835,157
of 25,368,786 outputs
Outputs from Animal Reproduction Science
#57
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Outputs of similar age
#50,891
of 268,222 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Animal Reproduction Science
#1
of 19 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,368,786 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 79th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,131 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 2.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 19 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.
