BioProject

Ovulatory dysfunction affects nearly 40% of women of reproductive age that are struggling with infertility. More...

Ovulatory dysfunction affects nearly 40% of women of reproductive age that are struggling with infertility. Ovulation is the culmination of a complex and long process during which most follicles undergo atresia instead of developing into preovulatory follicles. The rescue of follicles from atresia and their maturation towards ovulatory competence requires “a pas de deux” between endocrine and locally-produced factors. Unequivocally, the most crucial endocrine factor is follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are among the most important local factors and are an irreplaceable partner of FSH. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms involved in the regulation of granulosa cell (GC) differentiation by FSH and IGF in humans will contribute to improve infertility treatments. In this report, we characterize a novel experimental approach to study human GC differentiation using cumulus cells from patients undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). Our findings demonstrate that human cumulus cells from IVF patients respond to FSH with the expression of genes that are known to be markers of granulosa cell differentiation during follicle maturation from the preantral to the large antral stage. Moreover, these results demonstrate that a large number of FSH-regulated genes require IGF1R activity and suggest that several aspects of follicle growth are coordinately regulated by FSH and the IGF system in humans. We used microarrays to detail the global effects of FSH on gene expression and to determine the effect that IGF1R inhibition has on FSH-induced stimulation. Overall design: Human cumulus cells were plates in serum free media and treated with FSH in the presence of absence of AEW for 48h, before total RNA isolation. Less...