Reproduction results in parallel changes of oxidative stress and immunocompetence in a wild long-living mammal - edible dormouse Glis glis
Data files
Jan 08, 2026 version files 16.35 KB
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dormice_analyses.R
4.27 KB
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dormice_data.csv
8.99 KB
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README.md
3.09 KB
Abstract
Oxidative stress (OS) and impaired immune function (IF) have been proposed as key physiological costs of reproduction. The relationship between IF and OS, particularly in long-living iteroparous species, remains unresolved. Here, we studied OS and IF in breeding and non-breeding females of edible dormice- a long-living rodent prioritizing self-maintenance. We tested whether free-ranging reproducing females experience the trade-off between breeding investments, preventing OS, and sustaining IF. Because of senescence, the OS markers (oxidative damage - ROMs, lower antioxidant capacity - OXY) should increase with age and reproductive activity; the IF (indexed as the level of white blood cells – WBC and increased neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio - N/L) should decrease with age and reproductive effort. WBC decreased, N/L increased, while OS markers remained unaffected by age. ROMs (but not OXY) and age-adjusted WBC were the lowest in lactating, higher in post-lactating, and the highest in non-breeding females. The path analysis testing the causal relationship between ROMs and WBC revealed that IF is more likely to affect OS than vice versa. Our study indicates the trade-off between reproductive investments and sustaining IF and demonstrates that females suppress IF to reduce the risk of OS and, therefore, mitigate oxidative costs of reproduction.
Description of the data and file structure
Data are provided as a single CSV file, dormice_data.csv, with columns
- Animal_ID (the individual number of each female dormouse marked with an RFID tag)
- Age (age of female marked as juvenile during previous studies, data available only for 17 individuals, empty cells left unfilled to not interfere with the R code to analyse the data)
- year (year in which individual was captured and included to the study)
- sex_act (reproductive status of female: 1lac - lactating, 2post-lac - post-lactating, 3non-lac - non-lactating)
- hw (measured head width of female in the broadest point - zygomatic arches with caliper to nearest 0.1 mm)
- dROM (measured reactive oxygen metabolites in blood plasma of female, by the use of the dROM assay kit (Diacron, Grosseto, Italy))
- OXYadsorbent (measured antioxidant capacity by OXY-Adsorbent Test (Diacron, Grosseto, Italy))
- neutro_sum (sum of neutrophiles per 400 counted leukocytes, established by evaluation of blood smear prepared from blood of female)
- eosinoph_sum (sum of eosinophiles per 400 counted leukocytes, established by evaluation of blood smear prepared from blood of female)
- basoph_sum (sum of basophiles per 400 counted leukocytes, established by evaluation of blood smear prepared from blood of female)
- mono_sum (sum of monocytes per 400 counted leukocytes, established by evaluation of blood smear prepared from blood of female)
- limpho_sum (sum of lymphocytes per 400 counted leukocytes, established by evaluation of blood smear prepared from blood of female)
- n_l (proportion of neutrophiles counted per 400 leukocytes to lymphocytes counted per 400 leukocytes; index of inflammation and stress)
- wbc (average amount of white blood cells counted per 10 000 of red blood cells in 10 repeats, established by evaluation of blood smear prepared from blood of female)
- mb (body mass of female measured after capture with a resolution of 2g)
- body_size (body size of female calculated as common variance of head width and body mass, obtained in principal component analysis, explaining 78% of variation in body mass and size, estimated as head width)
- PC_2 (condition of female calculated as common variance of head width and body mass, obtained in principal component analysis, explaining 22% of variation in body mass and size, estimated as head width)
Code/Software
In addition to the data, we provide the code for reproducing analyses in dormice_analyses.R. This script analyzes dormouse physiological data by testing relationships between reproductive status, body size, and immune/oxidative stress markers using mixed and linear models, model comparisons, and path analysis. It also checks assumptions, estimates marginal means, tests interactions, and evaluates alternative causal pathways between white blood cells and oxidative damage.
The population of edible dormice was studied in the central part of Kozienice Forest (51°30′15″N, 21°27′27″E) in central Poland. We monitored this population from 2013 and marked animals individually (RF-IDW-1, CBDZOE, Poland). In August-September 2019-2021, females were captured (21 lactating, 17 post-lactating, and 44 non-lactating) and transported to the laboratory of Forest Research Institute in Sękocin Stary. Blood sampling protocol was performed after ~30 hours spent in the animal room to reduce the stress associated with capture and transport to the laboratory. During the procedure (which lasted less than 3 minutes), animals were anaesthetised under a 2 % isoflurane and atmospheric air. Blood samples (~50 µL) were taken from the retro-orbital sinus by heparinized microhematocrit capillary tubes. To establish the leukocyte status, the blood smear was prepared immediately from 4µL of full blood. 15 min after sampling~~ blood was centrifuged at 13,000 rpm for 20 min at 4°C to separate red blood cells from plasma. Plasma was immediately stored at -80°C until the assays were performed.
- Iwińska, Karolina; Boratyński, Jan S.; Książek, Aneta et al. (2024). Reproduction results in parallel changes of oxidative stress and immunocompetence in a wild long-living mammal—edible dormouse Glis glis. Biology Letters. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0257