Effect of thyroid hormone depletion on monoamines and expression patterns of catfish GnRH in the air-breathing catfish, Clarias gariepinus

Abstract

Thyroid hormone is known to have profound effect on the efficient functioning of the reproductive system. The GnRH-gondaotropin (GTH) axis is the crucial axis involved in regulation of the various aspects of reproduction like spermatogenesis, synthesis of sex steroids and regulation of courting and spawning behavior. Earlier study from our laboratory has shown that thyroid hormone depletion causes a decrease in GTH and GnRH levels in pituitary and preoptic area, respectively. GnRH secretion in pre-optic area is largely regulated by the monoaminergic system mainly dopamine (DA), epinephrine (E), norepinephrine (NE) and serotonin (5-HT). The expression pattern of catfish GnRH transcripts tends to corroborate our earlier findings. Hence, in the current study we aimed to investigate the levels of monoamines in the preoptic area-hypothalamus (POA-H), so as to determine whether thyroid hormone depletion modulates the monoaminergic neurotransmission thereby affecting GnRH secretion. The levels of NE and L-dopa decreased significantly while that of DA was unaltered following thyroid hormone depletion. DA has an inhibitory effect on GnRH secretion. Findings from the present study suggest that the inhibitory tone is unaltered while the stimulatory tone influencing GnRH neurons in POA-H is decreased during thiourea induced thyroid hormone depletion.