Project description:Human granulosa cells are follicular cells surrounding the oocyte. Human granulosa cells are retrieved during in vitro fertilization a process where patients undergo hormonal stimulation including FSH and LH/hCG stimulation. Under the influence of the luteinizing hormone (LH) a process called luteinization they differentiate to luteal cells and contribute to the corpus luteum. Therefore, this cellular system is a good model for human corpus luteum (CL). To study processes within the human CL, IVF-derived GCs from patients were cultured for two to five days and then analyzed with mass spectrometry based shotgun proteomics.
Project description:The granulosa cells in the mammalian ovarian follicle respond to gonadotropin signalling and are involved in the processes of folliculogenesis and oocyte maturation. Studies on gene expression and regulation in human granulosa cells are of interest due to their potential for estimating the oocyte viability and IVF success. However, the post-transcriptional gene expression studies on miRNA level in the human ovary have been scarce. The current study determined the miRNA profile by deep sequencing of the two intrafollicular somatic cell types: mural and cumulus granulosa cells isolated from women undergoing controlled ovarian stimulation and in vitro fertilization.
Project description:Human granulosa cells (GCs), obtained during medical reproductive procedures can be cultured and are a cellular model for the human ovary. Oxygen concentrations are regarded as important regulators of GCs. We examined consequences of low (1%) O2 versus standard atmospheric conditions in cultured human GCs for four days. A proteomic analysis of three pools of human GCs was performed. While differences between the pools of GCs were noted, the abundance of 133 proteins was significantly increased in hypoxia in all samples, whereas the abundance of 391 proteins was decreased.
Project description:We used MethylCap-seq and RRBS to profile methylomes of purified human ovarian granulosa cells. Genomic DNA methylation patterns in ovarian granulosa cells were compared between two groups of women: i) oocyte donors (n=20) who were young (age 26 ± 2.2 years) and had robust response to ovarian stimulation during assisted reproductive technology (ART) (mean number of oocytes retrieved = 25); versus ii) poor responders (n=20) who were older (age 40 ± 2.3 years) and responded poorly to ovarian stimulation during ART (oocytes retrieved ≤4 and peak estradiol level ≤ 1000 pg/ml). The first group served as healthy control. The second group represented the majority of women in their early 40s who have the natural age-related decline of ovarian functions and therefore respond poorly to ovarian stimulation during ART. We compared DNA methylomes in ovarian granulosa cells from oocyte donors versus poor responders using two approaches: MethylCap-seq for broader genomic coverage, and RRBS for absolute quantification. Due to very limited amount of materials available from each poor responder, samples containing equal amounts of granulosa cell DNA were pooled from 10 individuals in each group. A second set of experiments pooling granulosa cell DNA samples from independent donor and poor responder groups (ten individuals each) was then performed.
Project description:We are human embryologists from center for reproductive medicinel of Anhui Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Anhui Medical University, and we have the expertise to do all that properly in humans. By deep sequencing, the current experiment determined the miRNA profile of two intrafollicular somatic cell types: CRCs and COCs, isolated from women undergoing controlled ovarian stimulation and in vitro fertilization treatment. Ovarian follicles, which are a densely-packed shell of granulosa cells that contains an immature or mature oocyte, are above all responsible for the development, maturation, and release of mature egg for fertilization. They are also responsible for synthesizing and secreting hormones that are essential for follicular development, menstrual and estrous cycle, maintenance of the reproductive tracts and their functions, development of female secondary sex characteristics, and metabolism. During folliculogenesis, ovarian granulosa cells surrounding the oocyte differentiate into mural granulosa cells, involved in gonadal steroidogenesis, and into cumulus cells, which are ovulated with the oocyte at ovulation. These cumulus cells derive from the same population of early follicles, but differentiate into two distinct groups of cells: 1) Those directly lie on the zona pellucida are composed of the so called corona radiata cells.(CRCs) 2) The other group surrounds the CRCs and consists of more numerous cells, forming the so called cumulus oophorus cells (COCs). In the present study, we described the miRNA expression profile to characterize the ensemble of both known and novel miRNAs expressed in CRCs, as well as in COCs, by using high-throughput Solexa technology.
Project description:Granulosa cells provide essential niche for ovarian folliculogenesis by communicating with oocytes and secreting steroids at different follicular stages, but current cellular models for studying human granulosa cells mainly rely on immortal cancer cell lines. Here, we established a reprogramming method to collect early and late granulosa cells with different steroidogenic abilities. We applied AMH-fluorescence-reporter system to screen six candidate factors for cellular reprogramming and generated human induced granulosa like cells (hiGC) by overexpressing FOXL2 and NR5A1. AMH-EGFP+ hiGC resembled human cumulus cells in transcriptome profiling and secreted high levels of estrogen as well as progesterone, similar to late-stage granulosa cells at antral or preovulatory stage. Moreover, we identified a cell surface marker CD55 which can be used to isolate early-stage granulosa cells. CD55+AMH-EGFP- hiGC secreted high levels of estrogen but low levels of progesterone, and the transcriptome profiles were more similar to early-stage granulosa cells. Both types of the hiGC promoted oocyte maturation when cocultured with immature oocytes. More importantly, when CD55+ hiGC were transplanted to mouse model with Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the number of cystic follicles was significantly reduced, showing alleviation of PCOS. Hence, hiGC provides a cellular model to study developmental program of human granulosa cells and has potential to treat PCOS.
Project description:The granulosa cells in the mammalian ovarian follicle respond to gonadotropin signalling and are involved in the processes of folliculogenesis and oocyte maturation. Studies on gene expression and regulation in human granulosa cells are of interest due to their potential for estimating the oocyte viability and IVF success. However, the post-transcriptional gene expression studies on miRNA level in the human ovary have been scarce. The current study determined the miRNA profile by deep sequencing of the two intrafollicular somatic cell types: mural and cumulus granulosa cells isolated from women undergoing controlled ovarian stimulation and in vitro fertilization. Paired cumulus and mural granulosa samples were analysed from 3 women participating in IVF procedure. Libraries of all 6 samples were sequenced twice, generating 2 technical replicates for each sample. Differential gene expression study was performed on the pooled results of technical replicates.