Abstract: |
During follicular development, the importance of the interaction between oocytes and somatic cells is well-known for maturation oocyte. Growth differentiation factor-9 (gdf-9) is thought to play an important role in such process. In this study, we characterized porcine gdf-9 gene and investigate its expression during development. Also we determined its expression by different hormones during in vitro oocyte maturation. Overall length of pig gdf-9 cDNA was cloned and its presumptive protein sequence of isolated cDNA has high homology to human or mouse GDF-9 sequences. The gdf-9 transcript was expressed in all stage of preimplantation embryos and fetuses, and was also expressed in the heart, brain, cumulus cells, spleen, ovary, and testis. Porcine GDF-9 protein was specifically localized in in vitro matured oocyte and oocytes from adult ovary. In order to investigate the potential regulator of gdf-9 gene expression, expression level of gdf-9 gene was determined using serum-free in vitro maturation (IVM) system. Supplementing with human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), pregnant mare serum gonadotrophin (PMSG), gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), follicular stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone (LH), or epidermal growth factor (EGF) did not affect level of gdf-9 gene expression during ooycte maturation. In conclusion, porcine gdf-9 gene is expressed in the porcine reproductive organ, especially in oocytes and embryos, and its expression is decreased during IVM. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. |
Keywords: |
immunohistochemistry; epidermal growth factor; controlled study; intercellular signaling peptides and proteins; nonhuman; animal cell; animals; mice; oocytes; gene; somatic cell; reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction; gene amplification; gene expression; spleen; gene function; immunofluorescence; in vitro study; gonadorelin; ovary; cloning, molecular; gene expression regulation, developmental; amino acid sequence; sequence homology, amino acid; brain; gene identification; nucleotide sequence; pregnancy; fetus; heart; testis; swine; ovarian follicle; complementary dna; preimplantation embryo; suidae; sus; chorionic gonadotropin; hormones; follitropin; blastocyst; dna, complementary; dna isolation; luteinizing hormone; ovary follicle development; oocyte maturation; gdf-9; growth differentiation factor 9; seric gonadotropin; cumulus oophorus; growth differentiation factor 9 gene; gonadotropins, equine
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