Reduced activin A levels impair urogenital system development and compromise female mouse fertility

Briefly about the project:During the process of generating mice with a tissue-specific deletion of Inhba, we obtained homozygous mice carrying a flanked exon 1 of the Inhba with a left LoxP site in the 5’untranslated region of the gene, which, to our surprise, displayed a seven-fold reduction in activin A even in the absence of Cre recombinase. This unexpected outcome resulted in a novel hypomorphic Inhba mouse model, herein referred to as InhbaLoxP/LoxP, uniquely enabling the exploring of Inhba’s role in female mouse reproduction, which could not be assessed in conventional knockout models due to perinatal lethality.This dataset consists:File 1. Body weight measurements of InhbaWT/WT, InhbaLoxP/WT, and InhbaLoxP/LoxP females and males from 3 weeks to 12 weeks of age.File 2. Level of activin A protein in the serum of InhbaWT/WT, InhbaLoxP/WT, and InhbaLoxP/LoxP females and males.File 3. The number of fertile and infertile InhbaWT/WT, InhbaLoxP/WT, and InhbaLoxP/LoxP females and males.File 4. The data from the fertility test:Time (in days) from establishing the breeding pairs of fertile InhbaWT/WT, InhbaLoxP/WT, and InhbaLoxP/LoxP females and males, with wild-type mice, to the birth of a litter.Litter size from fertile InhbaWT/WT, InhbaLoxP/WT, and InhbaLoxP/LoxP females and males, after mating with wild-type mice.File 5. The number of germinal vesicles (GV) oocytes isolated from InhbaWT/WT  and InhbaLoxP/LoxP females' ovaries.File 6. The number of oocytes at different maturation stages following in vitro maturation: mature metaphase II stage (MII), germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD), germinal vesicle (GV), and degenerated oocytes of InhbaWT/WT and InhbaLoxP/LoxP females.File 7. The number of InhbaWT/WT and InhbaLoxP/LoxP MII oocytes displaying normal and abnormal meiotic spindles after IVM.File 8. The number of abnormal MII oocytes, from InhbaWT/WT and InhbaLoxP/LoxP females, with fibres separated from the spindle, unfocused spindle poles, and misaligned chromosomes.File 9. The number of MII oocytes collected after hormonal ovulation stimulation of InhbaWT/WT and InhbaLoxP/LoxP females.File 10. The number of MII oocytes from InhbaWT/WT and InhbaLoxP/LoxP females fertilized and not fertilized, after in vitro fertilization with wild-type sperm, based on the presence of two pronuclei.File 11. Serum levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), estradiol (E2), and luteinizing hormone (LH) in the InhbaWT/WT and InhbaLoxP/LoxP females, synchronized in the estrus phase.File 12. Ovarian diameter measured in InhbaWT/WT and InhbaLoxP/LoxP females in millimetres.File 13. The number of ovarian follicles at different developmental stages, counted based on histological analysis of sections of InhbaWT/WT and InhbaLoxP/LoxP females.File 14. The number of embryos that developed to the blastocyst stage after IVF of oocytes from InhbaWT/WT and InhbaLoxP/LoxP females.File 15. The number of blastocysts that derived an outgrowth. The blastocysts were obtained by IVF of oocytes from InhbaWT/WT and InhbaLoxP/LoxP females.File 16. Levels of inhibin A protein in the serum of InhbaWT/WT and InhbaLoxP/LoxP females.