Vet World   Vol.14   July-2021  Article-20

RFamide peptides, the novel regulators of mammalian HPG axis: A review

Background and Aim: The RFamide-related peptides (RFRPs) are the group of neuropeptides synthesized predominantly from the hypothalamus that negatively affects the hypothalamo-hypophyseal-gonadal (hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal [HPG]) axis. These peptides are first identified in quail brains and emerged as the mammalian orthologs of avian gonadotropin inhibitory hormones. The RFRP-3 neurons in the hypothalamus are present in several mammalian species. The action of RFRP-3 is mediated through a G-protein-coupled receptor called OT7T022. The predominant role of RFRP-3 is the inhibition of HPG axis with several other effects such as the regulation of metabolic activity, stress regulation, controlling of non-sexual motivated behavior, and sexual photoperiodicity in concert with other neuropeptides such as kisspeptin, neuropeptide-Y (NPY), pro-opiomelanocortin, orexin, and melanin. RFamide peptides synthesized in the granulosa cells, interstitial cells, and seminiferous tubule regulate steroidogenesis and gametogenesis in the gonads. The present review is intended to provide the recent findings that explore the role of RFRP-3 in regulating HPG axis and its potential applications in the synchronization of reproduction and its therapeutic interventions to prevent stress-induced amenorrhea.

Keywords: hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis, reproduction, RFamide-related peptides-3.

How to cite this article: Mohapatra SS, Mukherjee J, Banerjee D, Das PK, Ghosh PR, Das K (2021) RFamide peptides, the novel regulators of mammalian HPG axis: A review, Veterinary World, 14(7): 1867-1873.

Received: 10-03-2021  Accepted: 10-06-2021     Published online: 20-07-2021

Corresponding author: Joydip Mukherjee   E-mail: joyphy@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2021.1867-1873

Copyright: Mohapatra, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.