Defining Postpartum Uterine Disease and the Mechanisms of Infection and Immunity in the Female Reproductive Tract in Cattle
By I. M. Sheldon, J. Cronin, L. Goetze, G. Donofrio, H. Schuberth. Biology of Reproduction, 2009
955 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Uterine microbial disease affects half of all dairy cattle after parturition, causing infertility by disrupting uterine and ovarian function. Infection with Escherichia coli, Arcanobacterium pyogenes, and bovine herpesvirus 4 causes endometrial tissue damage. Toll-like receptors on endometrial cells detect pathogen-associated molecules such as bacterial DNA, lipids, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS), leading to secretion of cytokines, chemokines, and antimicrobial peptides. Chemokines attract neutrophils and macrophages to eliminate the bacteria, although persistence of neutrophils is associated with subclinical endometritis and infertility. Cows with uterine infections are less likely to ovulate because they have slower growth of the postpartum dominant follicle in the ovary, lower peripheral plasma estradiol concentrations, and perturbation of hypothalamic and pituitary function. The follicular fluid of animals with endometritis contains LPS, which is detected by the TLR4/CD14/LY96 (MD2) receptor complex on granulosa cells, leading to lower aromatase expression and reduced estradiol secretion. If cows with uterine disease ovulate, the peripheral plasma concentrations of progesterone are lower than those in normal animals. However, luteal phases are often extended in animals with uterine disease, probably because infection switches the endometrial epithelial secretion of prostaglandins from the F series to the E series by a phospholipase A2-mediated mechanism, which would disrupt luteolysis. The regulation of endometrial immunity depends on steroid hormones, somatotrophins, and local regulatory proteins. Advances in knowledge about infection and immunity in the female genital tract should be exploited to develop new therapeutics for uterine disease.
Subfields: Agronomy and Crop Science, Immunology, Small Animals
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1a731b9fc9365382f6ba8fb14b05e687e737cd39
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Citations in the corpus
- A review of the causes of poor fertility in high milk producing dairy cows (2010, background): “However, even cows that are treated successfully for clinical endometritis have conception rates that are approximately 20% lower than in unaffected animals and an extra 3% of animals remain infertile and are culled (Sheldon et al., 2009a) .”
- Monitoring metabolic health of dairy cattle in the transition period. (2010, background): “Similarly, endometritis is associated with (preceded by) impaired innate immune function [13], and differences in IL-1, IL-6, and IL-10 expression [14], again with measurable changes in phagocytosis, TNF α and IL-6 present prepartum [15], weeks before disease becomes manifest, coincident with the…”