Homozygous androgen receptor (AR)-knockout (ARKO) female mice are subfertile due to both intra- and extraovarian (neuroendocrine) defects as defined by ovary transplantation. Using ARKO mice, this study set out to reveal the precise AR-regulated pathways required for optimal androgen-regulated ovulation and fertility. ARKO females exhibit deficient neuroendocrine negative feedback, with a reduced serum luteinizing hormone (LH) response to ovariectomy (OVX) (P < 0.01). Positive feedback is also altered as intact ARKO females, at late proestrus, exhibit an often mistimed endogenous ovulatory LH surge. Furthermore, at late proestrus, intact ARKO females display diminished preovulatory serum estradiol (E2; P < 0.01) and LH (P < 0.05) surge levels and reduced Kiss1 mRNA expression in the anteroventral periventricular nucleus (P < 0.01) compared with controls. However, this reduced ovulatory LH response in intact ARKO females can be rescued by OVX and E2 priming or treatment with endogenous GnRH. These findings reveal that AR regulates the negative feedback response to E2, E2-positive feedback is compromised in ARKO mice, and AR-regulated negative and positive steroidal feedback pathways impact on intrahypothalamic control of the kisspeptin/GnRH/LH cascade. In addition, intraovarian AR-regulated pathways controlling antral to preovulatory follicle dynamics are disrupted because adult ARKO ovaries collected at proestrus have small antral follicles with reduced oocyte/follicle diameter ratios (P < 0.01) and increased proportions of unhealthy large antral follicles (P < 0.05) compared with controls. As a consequence of aberrant follicular growth patterns, proestrus ARKO ovaries also exhibit fewer preovulatory follicle (P < 0.05) and corpora lutea numbers (P < 0.01). However, embryo development to the blastocyst stage is unchanged in ARKO females, and hence, the subfertility is a consequence of reduced ovulations and not altered embryo quality. These findings reveal that the AR has a functional role in neuroendocrine regulation and timing of the ovulatory LH surge as well as antral/preovulatory follicle development.
Keywords: androgen receptor; female reproduction; ovulation.