Doctoral Dissertation Research: Female reproductive ecology and energy availability in a high adiposity human population

博士论文研究：高肥胖人群中的女性生殖生态学和能量可用性

• 批准号: 2216659
• 负责人: Richard Bribiescas
• 金额: $ 2.52万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2216659&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Female; reproductive

Human reproduction requires females to invest significant amounts of caloric energy into pregnancy, lactation, and childcare. It has been proposed that females have evolved ways to vary how much energy they spend on reproduction in response to energy availability, which has commonly been indexed by body fat. Excess body fat can adversely affect reproductive hormone pathways and disrupt menstrual cycles, and it is not clear whether this might in part be due to the influence of body fat levels on sensitivity to stress. This research project examines female reproductive function among women in a population with comparatively high body fat levels who have been shown previously - in contrast to other populations - to experience relatively low rates of irregular menstrual cycles. In addition to contributing to a greater understanding of the diversity of body fat-reproductive function associations, this project supports scientific training for female graduate students and scientists in the research community, and helps strengthen scientific partnerships with local communities. Reproductive biologists have developed two scientific models to describe the relationship between ovarian function and caloric energy availability. The Lipostatic Model suggests that female reproductive function is closely associated with body fat levels, while the Metabolic Model suggests that female reproductive function is more strongly affected by caloric energy deficiencies. This project tests these models among females with high body fat levels by 1) examining the prevalence of menstrual irregularity and loss of ovulation among a study sample of approximately 150 females of mid-reproductive age, and 2) assessing reproductive hormone levels across the menstrual cycle in relation to body fat levels and physical activity. By using gold-standard dual x-ray absorptiometry to estimate subcutaneous fat together with wearable physical activity monitors to quantify daily physical activity, the project can address the question of whether high body fat levels protect female reproductive function from energetic stress caused by increased caloric demands.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

人类繁殖需要女性将大量热量能量投入到怀孕，哺乳和育儿中。有人提出，女性已经进化了方法来改变他们在能量可用性上花费多少能量在繁殖上花费的能量，而能量可用性通常是由体内脂肪索引的。多余的体内脂肪会对生殖激素途径产生不利影响并破坏月经周期，而且尚不清楚这是否可能部分是由于体内脂肪水平对压力敏感性的影响。该研究项目研究了体内脂肪水平相对较高的女性中女性生殖功能，与其他人群相比，这些脂肪水平相对较高，以经历相对较低的月经周期率。除了有助于对体内脂肪生产功能协会的多样性有助于更多的了解，该项目还支持研究社区中女性研究生和科学家的科学培训，并有助于加强与当地社区的科学伙伴关系。生殖生物学家已经开发了两个科学模型，以描述卵巢功能与热量能量可用性之间的关系。仪表性模型表明，女性生殖功能与体内脂肪水平密切相关，而代谢模型表明，女性生殖功能受热能缺乏症的影响更大。该项目通过1）研究了大约150名中异化年龄的女性的月经不规则性和排卵丧失的患病率，该项目在具有高体内脂肪水平的女性中测试了这些模型。通过使用金色标准双X射线吸收仪来估算皮下脂肪以及可穿戴的体育活动监测器以量化每日体育锻炼，该项目可以解决高体内脂肪水平是否保护女性生殖功能是否能够免受热量需求引起的高能量压力的问题，这反映了NSF的法定任务和审查的次数，这表明了综述的依据，并且在范围内构成了良好的影响，并且可以通过构成的支持，并依赖于基础。