Anti-Mullerian hormone as a marker of oocyte quantity, developmental potential, and fetal sex

Delayed childbearing age, increased environmental pollutants accompanying modern life style, and an increase in inbreeding due to high demand for milk and meat yield have resulted in the decline in human and bovine reproduction respectively. Anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) is expressed starting from 7-8 weeks of gestation in males and 20 weeks of gestation in females, in up to 100x higher concentration in males. AMH has been described as a non-invasive and accurate marker of ovarian quantitative fertility parameters in both humans and cattle. However, it is still unknown how AMH levels correlate to different fertility parameters in different cattle breeds; can AMH levels in the mother be used as a fetal sex marker during pregnancy in cows? In humans, can AMH collected in the single follicular fluid (mono FF), as well as granulosa cell (GC) AMH receptor 2 (AMHR2) be used as an embryo developmental potential marker? Here we present evidence of the higher levels of systemic and follicular AMH in Zebu compared to European cattle, corresponding to higher levels of AFC and oocytes. Cows pregnant with a male fetus, as compared to a female fetus, were observed to have a significantly different change in plasma AMH between day 35 and 135 during gestation. The placenta and cotyledon were found to express AMHR2 between day 38 and 80, however not significantly different between pregnancies with an opposite sex fetus. In the human study, systemic and average mono FF AMH, and average mono GC AMHR2 expression were significantly negatively correlated with the patient’s blastocyst rate. When patients were divided into normal and high groups based on the their systemic AMH levels, the following was observed: normal systemic AMH level patients had a lower average FF AMH level and a higher blastocyst rate compared to the higher systemic AMH level patients. Also, in normal systemic AMH patients, blastocysts corresponded to follicles with a lower level of AMH, while in high systemic AMH patients blastocysts corresponded to follicles with a higher level of AMH.