ABSTRACT: Gene expression analysis of pig cumulus-oocyte complexes stimulated in vitro with follicle stimulating hormone or epidermal growth factor-like peptides
Project description:Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) are currently used on cumulus-oocyte complexes to mimic the luteinizing hormone surge in vitro and induce oocyte maturation and cumulus expansion. We have previously shown that addition of exogenous recombinant growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9) during oocyte in vitro maturation led to an improvement of oocyte quality, as shown by an increased blastocyst percentage and fetal survival. Our objective was to characterize the effect of FSH/EGF and GDF9 treatments on mouse cumulus cells expression profile by microarray analysis.
Project description:Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) are currently used on cumulus-oocyte complexes to mimic the luteinizing hormone surge in vitro and induce oocyte maturation and cumulus expansion. We have previously shown that addition of exogenous recombinant growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9) during oocyte in vitro maturation led to an improvement of oocyte quality, as shown by an increased blastocyst percentage and fetal survival. Our objective was to characterize the effect of FSH/EGF and GDF9 treatments on mouse cumulus cells expression profile by microarray analysis. Cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were recovered from 21 to 26 day old female 129/SV mice, 44 hours post equine chorionic gonadotropin treatment (eCG (5 IU)). For the microarray experiment whole COCs were treated with 293H control medium (0.125% v/v), with 20 ng/ml GDF9 or with a combination of 50 mIU/ml FSH and 10 ng/ml EGF. After 8 hours of in vitro maturation, COCs were denuded by gentle pipetting, the oocytes were removed and the cumulus cells centrifuged and extracted RNA analysed by microarray.
Project description:Purpose: Preovualtory follicle diameter influences embryo quality in beef cattle that rely on a gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) injection to induce the preovualtory gonadotropin surge and subsequent ovualtion. The goals of this study are to compare transcriptome profiles of pools of four oocytes or associated cumulus cells collected from small (≤11.7mm) and large follicles (≥12.7 mm) exposed to a GnRH-induced gonadotropin surge and follicles (11.7-14.0 mm) exposed to an endogenous gonadotropin surge (spontaneous follicles). Methods: Oocyte and cumulus cell mRNA profiles of pools of four oocytes or associated cumulus cells collected from small (≤11.7mm) and large follicles (≥12.7 mm) exposed to a GnRH-induced gonadotropin surge or spontaneous follicles (11.7-14.0 mm) which were exposed to an endogenous gonadotropin surge were generated by deep sequencing (n=6 small follicle oocyte, 6 small follicle cumulus, 6 large follicle oocyte, 6 large follicle cumulus, 4 spontaneous follcile oocyte, and 5 spontaneous follicle cumulus pools), using Illumina HiSeq 2000 . The sequence reads that passed quality filters were aligned to the Bos taurus reference genome UMD3.1 using Hisat2mapper. FeatureCounts was used to quantify transcript abundance in each library using Bos taurus gene annotation from Ensembl. Differences in gene transcript expression were then analyzed amoung oocyte or cumulus cell follcile classifications using the packages edgeR and DESeq2 in R software. Results: We mapped an average of 30 million sequence reads per sample to the Bos taurus reference genome UMD3.1 and identified 69, 94, and 83 differentially expressed gene transcripts (DEG) among oocyte libraries from small versus large, small versus spontaneous, and large versus spontaneous follicle classifications, respectively. We also identified 128, 98, and 80 DEG among cumulus cell libraries from small versus large, small versus spontaneous, and large versus spontaneous follicles, respectively. Conclusions: Our study represents detailed analysis of RNA-sequencing data generated from in vivo produced cumulus and oocyte samples collected from preovualtory follicles of varied physiological status after exposure to an endogenous or exogenously stimulated gonadotropin surge. The results of our study highlight key differences in the transcriptome of samples from small, large, or spontaneous follicles and provide insight into the reduced embryo quality observed when small follicles undergo a GnRH induced gonadotropin surge.
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:Background: The gonadotropin-induced resumption of oocyte meiosis in preovulatory follicles is preceded by expression of epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like peptides, amphiregulin (AREG) and epiregulin (EREG), in mural granulosa and cumulus cells. Both the gonadotropins and the EGF-like peptides possess the capacity to stimulate resumption of oocyte meiosis in vitro via activation of a broad signaling network in cumulus cells. To better understand the rapid genomic actions of gonadotropins (FSH) and EGF-like peptides, we analyzed transcriptomes of cumulus cells at 3 h after their stimulation. Methods: We hybridized aRNA from cumulus cells to a pig oligonucleotide microarray and compared the transcriptomes of FSH- and AREG/EREG-stimulated cumulus cells with untreated control cells and vice versa. The identified over- and underexpressed genes were subjected to functional genomic analysis according to their molecular and cellular functions. The expression pattern of 50 selected genes with a known or potential function in ovarian development was verified by real-time qRT-PCR. Results: Both FSH and AREG/EREG increased the expression of genes associated with regulation of cell proliferation, cell migration, blood coagulation and extracellular matrix remodeling. FSH alone induced the expression of genes involved in inflammatory response and in the response to reactive oxygen species. Moreover, FSH stimulated the expression of genes closely related to some ovulatory events either exclusively or significantly more than AREG/EREG (AREG, ADAMTS1, HAS2, TNFAIP6, PLAUR, PLAT, and HSD17B7). In contrast to AREG/EREG, FSH also increased the expression of genes coding for key transcription factors (CEBPB, FOS, ID1/3, and NR5A2), which may contribute to the differing expression profiles of FSH- and AREG/EREG-treated cumulus cells. Conclusions: The impact of FSH on cumulus cell gene transcription was higher than the impact of EGF-like factors in terms of the number of cell functions affected as well as the number of over- and underexpressed genes. Both FSH and EGF-like factors overexpressed genes involved in the post-ovulatory switch in steroidogenesis and tissue remodelling. However, FSH was remarkably more efficient in the up-regulation of several specific genes essential for ovulation of matured oocytes and also genes that been reported to play an important role in maturation of cumulus-enclosed oocytes in vitro.
Project description:Direct exposure to physiologically-relevant elevated temperatures during the first half of in vitro maturation heightens cumulus-derived progesterone production, suppresses matrix metallopeptidase 9 secretion, and alters cumulus transcriptome. We hypothesized that heat-induced perturbations in cumulus cells enveloping maturing oocyte may extend to the mural granulosa of the periovulatory follicle in the heat-stressed cow to subsequently follicular fluid proteome. Lactating Holsteins were pharmacologically stimulated to produce a dominant follicle then given GnRH to induce an LH surge. Following GnRH administration, cows were maintained at ~67 temperature humidity index (THI; thermoneutral conditions) or exposed to conditions simulating an acute heat stress event (71 to 86 THI; heat stress for ~12 h). Fluid was aspirated from periovulatory follicle ~16 h after GnRH. Follicular fluid proteome from thermoneutral (n = 5) and hyperthermic (n = 5) cows was evaluated by quantitative tandem mass spectrometry (nano LC-MS/MS). We identified 35 differentially-abundant proteins. Functional annotation revealed numerous immune-related proteins. Subsequent efforts revealed an increase in levels of the proinflammatory mediator bradykinin in follicular fluid (P = 0.0456) but not in serum (P = 0.9319) of hyperthermic cows. Intrafollicular increases in transferrin (negative acute phase protein) in hyperthermic cows (P = 0.0181) coincided with a tendency for levels to be increased in the circulation (P = 0.0683). Nine out of 15 cytokines evaluated were detected in follicular fluid. Heat stress increased intrafollicular IL6 levels (P = 0.0160). Whether hyperthermia-induced changes in the heat-stressed cow’s follicular fluid milieu reflect changes in mural granulosa, cumulus, other cell types secretions, and/or transudative changes from circulation remains unclear. Regardless of origin, heat stress/hyperthermia related changes in the follicular fluid milieu may have an impact on components important for ovulation and competence of the cumulus-oocyte complex contained within the periovulatory follicle
Project description:Cumulus-oocyte complexes were isolated at seperate time-points to generate temporal complexes. Targets from two biological replicates at each time point (0h, 8h, 16h post-hCG treatment) were generated and the expression profiles were determined using Affymetrix GeneChip Mouse Genome 430 2.0 Arrays. Comparisons between the sample groups allow the identification of genes with temporal expression patterns. Experiment Overall Design: 2 eCG-primed (48h) pooled cumulus-oocyte complexes, 2 eCG-primed (48h) hCG-treated (8h) pooled cumulus-oocyte complexes, and 2 eCG-primed (48h) hCG-treated (16h) pooled cumulus-oocyte complexes replicates were analyzed
Project description:Changes in gene expression induced by FSH in cumulus cells treated with adenosine using Agilent EmbryoGENE microarray slides. Bovine cumulus-oocyte complexes in vitro-cultured for 6 h using adenosine. The effect of FSH was compared with control as non-treated cumulus-oocyte complexes. After culture, COC were were washed and cumulus cells were used for microarray analysis
Project description:The oocyte forms a complex with their somatic cumulus cells within the follicle throughout the preovulatory maturation steps. Cumulus cells support their oocyte not only through mechanical protection but also with a close bidirectional exchange of metabolites. Analysis of the oocytes cumulus gives the opportunity to explore non-invasively oocytal well-being and quality. In vitro maturation (IVM) is the first rate-limiting step in in vitro embryo production. Analysis of protein expression in cumulus cells around this critical step helps to explore the impact of maturation conditions and to examine an influence on maturational competence of the oocyte. The goal of this study was the comparison of the cumulus proteome of oocytes with and without maturational competence matured under in vivo and in vitro conditions. Therefore twenty cumulus samples corresponding to single oocytes were analysed. Half of the samples were matured in vivo and the other half in vitro. For each maturation group, cumulus from oocytes matured successfully (SM; n=5) and failed to mature (FM; n=5) were analysed.