Age-related uterine and ovarian hypertrophy in FSH receptor knockout and FSHβ subunit knockout mice

Abstract

Female mice in which the gene encoding the follicle-stimulating hormone FSH receptor (FSHR) knockout (KO) or its ligand (FSHβKO) have been disrupted were infertile. Ovaries of these mice were significantly smaller than those of heterozygous littermates but significantly larger than those of hypogonadal mice of the same age. Uterine masses in all three mutants were < 6 mg, significantly reduced compared with heterozygous mice. At 1 year of age uterine mass had increased to > 12 mg in 63% of FSHRKO females and 88% of FSHβKO females. Despite the increase in uterine size there was no evidence of contractility: uteri were flaccid and unresponsive to electrical or pharmacological stimulation. In most females in which uterine growth had occurred there was evidence of ovarian growth with hypertrophy of the interstitial tissue, occurrence of ovarian cysts and epithelial and tubular inclusions. There was no evidence of uterine or ovarian hypertrophy in hypogonadal (hpg) mice at any age or in 1 year old females in which the FSH mutations were bred onto the hpg background. There was an inverse correlation of plasma LH concentrations and uterine mass in 1 year old mutant females with uterine hypertrophy. Ovariectomy of both FSHRKO and FSHβKO females with large uteri resulted in decreased uterine mass and increased plasma concentration of LH. The number of mice with ovarian pathology, reminiscent of the serous ovarian adenocarcinomas found in humans, was significantly greater in the FSHβKO mice, indicating that the presence of an intact FSH receptor on ovarian cells of FSHβKO females may allow constitutive basal stimulation of the ovary, which is absent in mice lacking FSH receptors.