Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century

Relaxin and Reproductive Health

Could a hormone that’s present in a nursing sow’s first milk be important to the long-term reproductive-tract health of her female offspring?

That’s a question Auburn University animal scientist Frank Bartol looks to answer in a study that was awarded a three-year, highly competitive U.S. Department of Agriculture grant.

The hormone, called relaxin, is produced by animals and humans during pregnancy and is known to support the birth process.

Bartol and co-investigator Carol Bagnell of Rutgers University have found that relaxin, long believed to function primarily as a hormone of late pregnancy, is in the bloodstream of newborn pigs that nurse immediately after birth. That indicates that relaxin is passed from mother to offspring in milk. The scientists also have shown that relaxin can affect reproductive-tract development in newborn female pigs.

This study aims to determine the extent to which relaxin and other milk-borne factors are required to ensure that female reproductive-tract tissues develop properly in order to function normally in adulthood.