Endogenous prostaglandin secretion during cloprostenol-induced abortion in mares

Abstract Repeated administration of prostaglandin is the treatment of choice for the termination of pregnancy in mares more than 40 days pregnant. Even though it is well documented that PGF-2α or analogue needs to be administered every 12–24 h for successful induction of abortion, little is known about the underlying endocrine changes and the mechanism by which abortion occurs. The aim of this study was to characterize the changes in PGF-2α, progesterone and estrogen secretion during prostaglandin-induced abortion. Six mares, 82–102 days pregnant, were treated daily with 250 μg cloprostenol, blood was collected at 1-h intervals until fetal expulsion and pregnancy examination was performed daily. Four mares, 92–97 days pregnant, received no treatment but were subjected to the same hourly blood collections and daily genital examinations described for cloprostenol-treated mares for 3 days. Mean time from first cloprostenol administration until fetal expulsion was 48.6 ± 5.6 h and required 2.8 ± 0.2 cloprostenol administrations. In all mares, progesterone concentrations decreased in a near linear manner after the first cloprostenol administration and were invariably low (1.3 ± 0.2 ng ml −1 , mean ± SEM) at the time of fetal expulsion. Mean estrogen secretion remained unchanged until 5 h before fetal expulsion and then decreased rapidly to non-pregnant levels. Endogenous PGF-2α secretion rate increased with each cloprostenol administration and culminated in sustained PGF-2α secretion which persisted until fetal expulsion was completed. From these results we conclude that cloprostenol-induced abortion is associated with endogenous PGF-2α secretion, fetal expulsion coincides with sustained PGF-2α secretion and low progesterone concentrations and plasma estrogen concentrations remain unchanged until hours before fetal expulsion.