ABSTRACT: Transcriptomic profiling of granulosa and cumulus cells for prediction of successful embryo implantation in human in-vitro fertilization procedures
Project description:Single embryo transfer (SET) is the most successful way to reduce the frequency of multiple pregnancies during in vitro fertilisation. However, selecting the embryo with the highest chances of pregnancy for SET remains a difficult challenge, since morphological and kinetics criteria provide poor prediction of both developmental and implantation ability. Partly through the expression of specific genes, the oocyte-cumulus interaction helps the oocyte to acquire its developmental competence. Our aim was therefore to identify at the level of cumulus cells (CCs) any genes related to oocyte developmental competence. This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below. Refer to individual Series.
Project description:Embryo implantation is an essential step for the establishment of pregnancy and is crucial for the successful embryo transplantation of in vitro fertilization embryos. The successful implantation of an embryo depends upon cellular and molecular dialog between the uterus and the embryo. We used microarrays to detail the key regulated genes underlying embryo implantation process in sheep.
Project description:Single embryo transfer (SET) is the most successful way to reduce the frequency of multiple pregnancies during in vitro fertilisation. However, selecting the embryo with the highest chances of pregnancy for SET remains a difficult challenge, since morphological and kinetics criteria provide poor prediction of both developmental and implantation ability. Partly through the expression of specific genes, the oocyte-cumulus interaction helps the oocyte to acquire its developmental competence. Our aim was therefore to identify at the level of cumulus cells (CCs) any genes related to oocyte developmental competence. This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
Project description:In mammals, the capacity of the female germ cell, the oocyte, to develop into embryo is acquired throughout meiotic maturation. Immature oocyte cannot be fertilized while mature oocyte is apt to accept spermatozoa and to develop an embryo. In a follicle, the oocyte is surrounded by mural granulosa cells (GC) and is physically and metabolically coupled with specialized granulosa cumulus cells (CC) which play an important role in oocyte maturation and fertilization. Factors expressing in GC and CC during maturation may reflect the oocyte quality, i.e. its capacity to be fertilized and assure early embryo development. However, the modifications of the content and the amount of peptide/proteins in the oocyte and the surrounding CC during oocyte maturation are mostly unknown and so there is not an accurate way of evaluating/monitoring how different in vitro maturation (IVM) protocols being in use in assisted reproduction technologies, can affect the process. In this context, Intact Cell MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry (ICM-MS) was applied to bovine follicular cells (bovine single oocytes, cumulus cells and granulosa cells) in order to characterize proteomic changes that occur in the follicle during female gamete development. In order to characterize finely endogenous molecular species observed on ICM-MS profiles and to identify markers of interest with their post-translational modifications, we carried out top-down proteomic on the different follicular cells from oocyte, oocyte-cumulus complexes, cumulus cells and granulosa cells protein extracts. Prior to top-down MS using a dual linear ion trap Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometer LTQ Orbitrap Velos, depending on the amount of available biological material, we employed three analytic strategies as a direct infusion, a mono-dimensional liquid chromatography (µLC-1D-MS/MS) and an off-line multi-dimensional liquid chromatography combining four fractionations (based on reverse phase or gel filtration LC) to µLC-MS/MS. Here, we deposited our dataset from µLC-1D-MS/MS (analyses of oocytes, oocyte-cumulus complexes, cumulus cells and granulosa cells protein extracts) and MDLC-MS/MS (analyses of granulosa cells protein extract).
Project description:Currently, in vitro fertilization (IVF) is one of the most common approaches towards treating infertility. However, the success of this approach is still relatively low an the outcome of the IVF procedure is challenging to predict. At present, there is no highly successful marker that could reliably predict the pregnancy outcome in the process of assisted reproduction (AR). Currently, multiple embryo transfers are performed to warrant a successful pregnancy outcome, but this commonly results in multiple pregnancies, narrowing the feasibility of this method for a subset of couples affected by infertility. Recently IVF cycles with single-embryo transfers have become an option of interest in AR approaches. Such cycles, however, are significantly less successful and for this reason, there is an incentive to improve the pregnancy chance per IVF cycle by incorporating more criteria for selection of the embryo with the highest implantation potential. Gene expression in follicular cells, including granulosa cells (GC) and cumulus cells (CC) has previously been considered as a tool to predict the quality of the oocytes in several studies in addition to assessing the morphologic criteria of the embryos. Gene expression estimation in these cells, especially of the CC population, carries along several benefits as their harvesting is non-invasive, they are in direct contact with the oocyte and are usually discarded during the process of intracytoplasmatic sperm injection procedure (ICSI), making them any easily accessible surrogate tissue for gene expression analyses. Considering that several studies reporting various rates of success in prediction of AR cycle outcome with expression as a biomarker have been published, we attempted to perform the largest study of global gene expression alterations in finding novel biomarkers to outcome of in- vitro fertilization, which would encompass discovery of new biomarker genes and subsequent confirmational study of the selected biomarker set on an independent validation group. In this experiments 4 samples were hybridized twice, to allow for inspection of technical validity of microarray experiments.
Project description:In vitro maturation (IVM) of the oocytes is a routine method in bovine embryo production. The competence of bovine oocytes to develop into embryo after IVM and in vitro fertilization (IVF) is lower as compared to in vivo preovulatory oocytes. Cumulus cells (CC) that enclose an oocyte are involved in the acquisition of oocyte quality during maturation. Using transcriptomic approach we compared cumulus cells gene expression during IVM with that in vivo preovulatory period.
Project description:In vitro maturation (IVM) of the oocytes is a routine method in bovine embryo production. The competence of bovine oocytes to develop into embryo after IVM and in vitro fertilization (IVF) is lower as compared to in vivo preovulatory oocytes. Cumulus cells (CC) that enclose an oocyte are involved in the acquisition of oocyte quality during maturation. Using transcriptomic approach we compared cumulus cells gene expression during IVM with that in vivo preovulatory period. Global transcriptional profiling was performed using cumulus cells collected from mature bovine oocytes (metaphase-II stage) after maturation performed either in vivo or in vitro. In vivo matured cumulus cells were collected from ovulatory follicles of Montbeliard adult cows by ovum pick-up in vivo (OPU, n=4). In vitro matured cumulus cells were recovered from the oocytes after 22h of in vitro culture of cumulus-oocyte complexes (50 COC per experiment) from 2-6 mm ovarian follicles of adult cows (MIV, n=4). Gene expression analysis was carried out between in vivo and in vitro matured cumulus representing a total of 8 slides (dye swap protocol)
Project description:Differences between high- and low-potential COCs were examined by transcriptomic analysis of CC biopsies obtained from COCs of 2-6mm follicles from slaughterhouse ovaries before individual in vitro maturation, fertilization and culture until day 8 post-fertilization. Each COC was individually tracked and categorized based on his fate: embryo at blastocyst stage (CC-Blast) or embryo arrested at 2- to 8-cell stage (CC-2-8-cells). Average blastocyst rates were 27.7% for individual culture, and 31.2% for group control (not significantly different). Five cumulus biopsies per replicate were pooled for each fate. Three CC replicates underwent transcriptomic analysis using RNA microarray assay. Each cumulus cell sample is composed of 5 COC biopsies, 3 samples or biological replicates for each fate (CC-blast or CC-2-8-cells) were analysed by microarray. CC-2-8-cells condition was used as reference.
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. The current study determined the mRNA 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. Differential gene expression study was performed. The identified gene expression profile was also used for predicting targets for miRNAs that were also identified from the same samples (GSE46489).
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.