Oestrogen production by the preimplantation donkey conceptus compared with that of the horse and the effect of between-species embryo transfer

Abstract

Aromatase distribution in membranes of preimplantation horse and donkey conceptuses was compared by measuring the incorporation of [3H] androstenedione into oestrone and oestradiol-17β. In the donkey conceptus, aromatase activity was similar in all the tissues examined (yolk sac, chorionic girdle and allantochorion), whereas in the horse it was generally lower and showed the relationship chorionic girdle > yolk sac > allantochorion. A higher proportion of labelled precursor was incorporated into oestradiol-17β by extra-embryonic tissues of the donkey compared with those of the horse. In contrast to previous results, aromatase in the chorionic girdle did not decline progressively before its migration into the endometrium on Day 36 to form the endometrial cups. The chorionic girdle of a donkey conceptus carried in the uterus of a mare failed to invade the surrogate horse endometrium and aromatase activity was still high in this tissue at Day 42. Aromatase distribution in 2 transferred donkey-in-horse conceptuses resembled that of the fetal, rather than the maternal, genotype indicating a lack of effect of the maternal environment.