Polycystic ovary syndrome : A Drosophila Melanogaster Melanogaster disease model induced by DHT and/or high sugar diet

Polycystic ovary syndrome is an endocrine disorder with symptoms of hyperandrogenism, insulin-resistance and anovulation in women which creates a disposition for other disorders, like Type 2 Diabetes. Drosophila Melanogaster flies have short generation, low cost-management and share several signaling pathways with humans and are therefore an excellent tools to study disease aetiology – yet no such model exists for PCOS. This thesis aimed to create such PCOS-like disease model through treatment of Drosophila Melanogaster adults and larvae with 5-α Dihydrotestosterone and/or high sugar diet. The samples were studied by measuring weight, fecundity, total glycerol concentration and Real-Time quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT qPCR) using PCOS-related orthologue genes. While previous studies have frequently studied the effects of high sugar diets on Drosophila Melanogaster – there are no previous studies that have studied the effects of 5-α Dihydrotestosterone, with or without high sugar diet, on the weight, fecundity and gene expression of Drosophila Melanogaster. Results showed that larva raised on high sugar diet had traits resembling an insulin-resistant phenotype while the fecundity of flies treated with high sugar diet was significantly lower than those treated with standard sugar diet and DHT. RT qPCR showed overexpression of the standard sugar diet and DHT groups in the investigated genes EcR, Med, TOLL, THADA and FOXO. The conclusion, based on the results, is that insulin-resistance was produced but that more studies are required before a complete PCOS-like disease model is possible in Drosophila Melanogaster