Reproductive Capability Is Associated with Lifespan and Cause of Death in Companion Dogs
Reproduction is a risky affair; a lifespan cost of maintaining reproductive capability, and of reproduction itself, has been demonstrated in a wide range of animal species. However, little is understood about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Most cost-of-reproduction studies simply ask h...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3629191 2023-05-15T15:50:37+02:00 Reproductive Capability Is Associated with Lifespan and Cause of Death in Companion Dogs Hoffman, Jessica M. Creevy, Kate E. Promislow, Daniel E. L. 2013-04-17 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3629191 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23613790 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0061082 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3629191 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23613790 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0061082 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2013 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0061082 2013-09-04T22:36:21Z Reproduction is a risky affair; a lifespan cost of maintaining reproductive capability, and of reproduction itself, has been demonstrated in a wide range of animal species. However, little is understood about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Most cost-of-reproduction studies simply ask how reproduction influences age at death, but are blind to the subjects' actual causes of death. Lifespan is a composite variable of myriad causes of death and it has not been clear whether the consequences of reproduction or of reproductive capability influence all causes of death equally. To address this gap in understanding, we compared causes of death among over 40,000 sterilized and reproductively intact domestic dogs, Canis lupus familiaris. We found that sterilization was strongly associated with an increase in lifespan, and while it decreased risk of death from some causes, such as infectious disease, it actually increased risk of death from others, such as cancer. These findings suggest that to understand how reproduction affects lifespan, a shift in research focus is needed. Beyond the impact of reproduction on when individuals die, we must investigate its impact on why individuals die, and subsequently must identify the mechanisms by which these causes of death are influenced by the physiology associated with reproductive capability. Such an approach may also clarify the effects of reproduction on lifespan in people. Text Canis lupus PubMed Central (PMC) PLoS ONE 8 4 e61082 |
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Research Article Hoffman, Jessica M. Creevy, Kate E. Promislow, Daniel E. L. Reproductive Capability Is Associated with Lifespan and Cause of Death in Companion Dogs |
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Reproduction is a risky affair; a lifespan cost of maintaining reproductive capability, and of reproduction itself, has been demonstrated in a wide range of animal species. However, little is understood about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Most cost-of-reproduction studies simply ask how reproduction influences age at death, but are blind to the subjects' actual causes of death. Lifespan is a composite variable of myriad causes of death and it has not been clear whether the consequences of reproduction or of reproductive capability influence all causes of death equally. To address this gap in understanding, we compared causes of death among over 40,000 sterilized and reproductively intact domestic dogs, Canis lupus familiaris. We found that sterilization was strongly associated with an increase in lifespan, and while it decreased risk of death from some causes, such as infectious disease, it actually increased risk of death from others, such as cancer. These findings suggest that to understand how reproduction affects lifespan, a shift in research focus is needed. Beyond the impact of reproduction on when individuals die, we must investigate its impact on why individuals die, and subsequently must identify the mechanisms by which these causes of death are influenced by the physiology associated with reproductive capability. Such an approach may also clarify the effects of reproduction on lifespan in people. |
format |
Text |
author |
Hoffman, Jessica M. Creevy, Kate E. Promislow, Daniel E. L. |
author_facet |
Hoffman, Jessica M. Creevy, Kate E. Promislow, Daniel E. L. |
author_sort |
Hoffman, Jessica M. |
title |
Reproductive Capability Is Associated with Lifespan and Cause of Death in Companion Dogs |
title_short |
Reproductive Capability Is Associated with Lifespan and Cause of Death in Companion Dogs |
title_full |
Reproductive Capability Is Associated with Lifespan and Cause of Death in Companion Dogs |
title_fullStr |
Reproductive Capability Is Associated with Lifespan and Cause of Death in Companion Dogs |
title_full_unstemmed |
Reproductive Capability Is Associated with Lifespan and Cause of Death in Companion Dogs |
title_sort |
reproductive capability is associated with lifespan and cause of death in companion dogs |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3629191 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23613790 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0061082 |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3629191 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23613790 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0061082 |
op_rights |
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0061082 |
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PLoS ONE |
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8 |
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4 |
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e61082 |
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