Reproductive aging in the Djungarian hamster, Phodopus campbelli

Changes in fertility (delivery success), fecundity (litter size and weaning success), sensitivity to pregnancy-blocking stimuli (mate removal after 24 h), and hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian function were assessed during reproductive aging in the Djungarian hamster, Phodopus campbelli. All indices of aging occurred earlier in the Djungarian hamster than they do in other laboratory models, including the mouse. Fertility and fecundity were halved by 8 mo of age, and the response to pregnancy-blocking stimuli disappeared by 4-6 mo. Pup birth weight increased with maternal age and decreasing litter size. Older females also tended to lose entire litters rather than to reduce litter size and successfully wean remaining pups. Impaired ovarian function was a major contributor to reproductive aging. Numbers of large antral follicles developing in aged females and in aged females receiving eCG treatment were similar to those in young females. However, a few preovulatory follicles routinely failed to ovulate from each ovary. Healthy preovulatory follicles in old females secreted the large quantities of estradiol-17 beta typical of estrous cycles, but eCG-induced preovulatory follicles did not. As young females of this species have smaller folicular reserves than other rodent species, and follicle numbers in older females are further reduced (with a high incidence of completely degenerate ovaries), follicular exhaustion was coincident with reproductive failure. Neuroendocrine aging of the hypothalamus was also implicated in the loss of a pregnancy-blocking response and the failure of maternal care with increasing maternal age. Similarities to reproductive aging in long-cycle species (including primates) suggest that the Djungarian hamster is a useful laboratory model that deserves further investigation.