The ligand of the c-kit receptor promotes oocyte growth.
Packer AI,
Hsu YC, Besmer P, Bachvarova RF
Dev
Biol 1994 Jan 161:1 194-205
Abstract
Both
genetic and descriptive studies have implicated the c-kit receptor and
its ligand, KL, in the process of oocyte growth in the postnatal mouse
ovary. In order to test the hypothesis that KL is an oocyte growth
factor, we used an oocyte culture system to study its effects in vitro.
Initial experiments established that both ovarian c-kit and KL are
biologically active.
An immune
complex kinase assay demonstrated that ovarian c-kit, found primarily
on oocytes, has autophosphorylation activity, and a bone marrow-derived
mast cell coculture assay indicated that granulosa cells produce
functional KL. The addition of 10 ng/ml KL to growing follicles
cultured in collagen gels resulted in a 67% increase in the rate of
oocyte growth, and a doubling of the rate was achieved at around 50
ng/ml.
ACK2, a
monoclonal antibody against c-kit, severely inhibited the growth of
late fetal and neonatal oocytes in coculture with ovarian cells and had
less effect on growing oocytes cultured in follicles from 10- to
11-day-old mice.
Genistein,
an inhibitor of tyrosine kinases, including c-kit, blocked oocyte
growth and disrupted follicle morphology.
In initial
studies on the regulation of KL production in granulosa cells, we found
that both dibutyryl cyclic AMP and growing oocytes were able to induce
increased KL mRNA accumulation in granulosa cell monolayers as assessed
by Northern analysis. These studies demonstrate that c-kit and KL are
required for maintenance of oocyte growth in vitro.
Excerpts
Ín the
presence of genistein, many of the follicles became disorganized and
the oocytes became partially denuded (Fig. 6B). There also appeared to
be less granulosa cell proliferation compared to the control follicles.
This result suggests that tyrosine phophorylation is important for
granulosa cell proliferation and follicle organization, as well as for
oocyte growth.
Evidence is
accumulating that the oocyte is important for normal granulosa cell
proliferation and differentiation. they were consuming soy protein
isolate.
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