Measurement of urinary and fecal steroid metabolites during the ovarian cycle in captive and wild Japanese macaques, Macaca fuscata

We measured the concentration of steroid hormones from urine, feces, and bl ood samples of two captive Japanese macaques, Macaca fuscata, during noncon ceptive ovarian cycles to compare the patterns of the excreted steroids wit h those of circulating steroids. Urine and feces were analyzed for estrone conjugates (E1C) and pregnanediol-3-glucronide (PdG) using enzyme immunoass ays (EIAs), while plasma was analyzed for estradiol-17 beta (E-2), progeste rone (P), and luteinizing hormone (LH) using radioimmunoassays (RIAs), Urin ary and fecal E1C and PdG levels were approximately parallel to plasma E-2 and P levels, respectively. The E1C profiles of daily urinary and fecal sam ples revealed a midcycle peak, followed by a sustained PdG increase lasting up to two weeks from the E1C peak. A fecal E1C peak was one day later than the urinary E1C peak. One of the captive females exhibited a discrete plas ma LH peak, one indicator that ovulation has occurred, on the day following the urinary E1C peak, i.e., the same day of fecal E1C peak. We measured ex creted steroids in nine wild females and determined the timing of ovulation by comparing fecal steroid profiles to those obtained in captive monkeys. Data from wild females indicated that eight of nine females conceived durin g their first ovulatory cycle of the sampling period, whereas the remaining female failed to conceive during the sampling period even though she ovula ted. In the eight females that conceived, E1C increased again following the detected or estimated E1C peak, with levels comparable to the preovulatory peak levels, and sustained elevations of PdG for over 40 days. These data illustrate that the urinary and fecal profiles of ovarian steroid excretion obtained through the application of these noninvasive techniques provide a n accurate approach for monitoring conceptive and nonconceptive ovarian cyc le in captive and free-living Japanese macaques. Am. J. Primatol. 53:167-17 6, 2001. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.