Table 1.

Main functions of melatonin in ovaries of different species

Species	Melatonin regulation results	Dose/concentrations of melatonin	References
Rat	Increases mRNA expression of steroid synthesis genes Cyp19A1, Cyp17A1, Cyp11a1, HSD17B3, and STAR	5 ml/kg	[44]
Rat	Reduces the expression of Bax, Bcl-2, and caspase-3	10 mg/kg	[89]
Rat	Affects cell apoptosis, antioxidant activity, and the number of primordial follicles, primary follicles, and secondary follicles	20 mg/kg	[82]
Mouse	Enhances the expression of SIRT1 to inhibit excessive PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitochondrial autophagy	100 pM	[90]
Mouse	Reducing ROS-induced endoplasmic reticulum stress to protect against epirubicin induced ovarian injury	60 mg/kg	[91]
Cattle	Promotes the diameter of bovine follicles and the growth of secondary oocytes	10–7 M	[92]
Cattle	Inhibition of oxidative stress and apoptosis of bovine granulosa cells	0.01 μM	[13]
Cattle	Promotes the proliferation of bovine follicular membrane cells and inhibiting steroid production	10 μM	[93]
People	Inhibits BMP-6 signaling which plays an important role in maintaining progesterone production	1000 nM	[94]
People	Eliminated DNA damage induced by accumulated reactive oxygen species, protecting oocytes from late stage age-related meiotic defects and aneuploidy	100 mg/kg	[34]
Pig	Regulates the release and synthesis of GnRH and LH in luteal cells	100 pg/mL	[41]
Pig	Prevents apoptosis of porcine granulosa cells during follicular atresia through membrane receptors and their free radical scavenging activity	1 ng/mL	[46]
Sheep	Reduces intracellular ROS content, caspase-3 activity, DNA fragmentation, and abundance of pro apoptotic transcripts BAX and CASP3, while increasing the abundance of GDF9 and GPX1	10–9 M	[95]