Guest Editors
Richard Piet
Kent State University, Brain Health Research Institute and Department of Biological Sciences
Richard Piet is an assistant professor in the Brain Health Research Institute and Department of Biological Sciences at Kent State University in Ohio. Richard trained in neuroscience and neuroendocrinology. He received a PhD in Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology from the University of Bordeaux, France, and later trained as a postdoctoral fellow in the United States, France, and New Zealand. Richard started an independent research team at the University of Otago, New Zealand, in 2016 and moved his laboratory to Kent State in 2019. Research in the Piet laboratory focuses on the neuroendocrine circuits that control gonadotropin hormone secretion and fertility. The Piet lab aims to understand how these circuits integrate internal and environmental cues with gonadal steroid hormone feedback to regulate gonadotropin secretory patterns, gonadal function, and reproduction.
Aleisha M Moore
Kent State University, Brain Health Research Institute and Department of Biological Sciences
Dr. Moore is an Assistant Professor at Kent State University in Ohio. Her research focuses on understanding central circuits that regulate gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons, the final output cells in a large central network controlling fertility. Recently, her research has focused on the regulation of GnRH neurons by a population of cells that co-express the neuropeptides Kisspeptin, Neurokinin B, and Dynorphin (KNDy neurons) and how disruptions to these cells contribute to the development of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), the most common cause of infertility in women worldwide.
Collection Overview
Fertility in all mammals is controlled by a small group of neurons, scattered along the ventral hypothalamus, that produce and release the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) into the anterior pituitary portal blood system to drive the secretion of gonadotropin hormones and, ultimately, gonadal function. The patterns of gonadotropin secretion are controlled by neuronal circuits converging on the GnRH neurons and regulating their activity. This GnRH neuronal network includes populations of neurons that produce the neuropeptide kisspeptin and have emerged as obligatory regulators of fertility in humans and animal models. Understanding the regulation of these circuits is essential to gain insight into certain forms of human infertility, devise new diagnostic, therapeutic, or contraceptive tools, and improve productivity in livestock and aquaculture.
This JoVE methods collection will compile research methods currently used to study the neuroendocrine control of reproduction. These will include techniques that enable the study of the anatomy, genetics, molecular biology, and function of the GnRH neuronal network in many animal models, such as rodents, ruminants, and fish, using a variety of experimental approaches in vitro and in vivo. This collection aims to give readers an overview of the breadth of experimental tools applied to neuroendocrine research, from the study of single neurons’ electrical activity to the regulation of hormone secretion and reproductive function.
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