Vet World   Vol.15   August-2022  Article-18

Associations between ubiquitin, follicle-stimulating hormone, and sex steroid hormones in the failed to conceive female dromedary camels raised in hot climates

Background and Aim: The reproductive management of female dromedary camels involves traditional implications that are widespread among desert camel raisers. Several subfertility clinical manifestations impede pregnancy and elongate the interval between parturitions. Ubiquitin is a novel-specific protein, referred to recently as a biomarker for reproductive performance in male and female mammals. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the association between subfertility clinical status and the peripheral levels of ubiquitin versus follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), progesterone, and estradiol.

Materials and Methods: According to the clinical diagnoses, 80 female dromedaries admitted to the university clinic were categorized into six female groups suffering from endometritis (EN, 28; 35%), inactive ovaries (IO, 18; 22.5%), ovarian hydrobursitis (BU, 19; 23.75%), vaginal adhesions (VA, 7; 8.75%), salpingitis (SA, 4; 5%), and cervicitis (CE, 4; 5%). In addition, five normal fertile non-pregnant females served as controls (CONs). All animals underwent ultrasonography and blood sampling for hormone and ubiquitin determinations.

Results: The results revealed a significant (p < 0.05) increase in ubiquitin in the CE (577.22 pg/mL) and VA (670.92 pg/mL) females. However, lower ubiquitin levels but still higher than the CON were noted in females with other symptoms (225.76, 425.79, 394.02, 414.96, and 393.92 pg/mL in the CON, BU, SA, IO, and EN, respectively). Concomitantly, the mean levels of FSH revealed a similar trend, showing higher (p < 0.05) levels in CE (2.79 mIU/mL) and VA (2.5 pg/mL) females. In contrast, no change was observed in FSH among other groups than CON (2.11, 2.17, 2.01, 2.24, and 2.13 mIU/mL in CON, BU, SA, IO, and EN, respectively). There was no difference in the progesterone levels among groups; however, estradiol- 17β levels significantly differed (p < 0.01), showing the highest level (629.15 pg/mL) in the SA group with no significant difference among other groups.

Conclusion: Thus, ubiquitin could be used as a biomarker for genital tract inflammation in female camels raised in hot climates. Keywords: camel, estrogens, follicle-stimulating hormone, progesterone, subfertility, ubiquitin.

Keywords: camel, estrogens, follicle-stimulating hormone, progesterone, subfertility, ubiquitin.

How to cite this article: Alharbi YM (2022) Associations between ubiquitin, follicle-stimulating hormone, and sex steroid hormones in the failed to conceive female dromedary camels raised in hot climates, Veterinary World, 15(8): 2046–2051.

Received: 14-04-2022  Accepted: 06-07-2022     Published online: 24-08-2022

Corresponding author: Yousef Mesfer Alharbi   E-mail: yhrby@qu.edu.sa

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2022.2046-2051

Copyright: Alharbi, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.