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Original Article
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Korean J Obstet Gynecol. 2004;47(12):2439-2446. Published online December 1, 2004.
- Regulation of the apoptosis on the rat granulosa cell: effects of EGF, TGF-alpha.
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Hyun Hee Jo, Seong Jin Hwang, Hyung Young Kim, Mi Ran Kim, Dong Jin Kwon, Jang Heub Kim, Jin Hong Kim
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Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Catholic University Medical College, Seoul, Korea.
- Abstract
- OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effect of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) and the transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-alpha) on the apoptosis of the rat granulosa cells. METHODS: For this study, granulosa cells were isolated from female rats, and granulosa cells were cultured in the presence or absence of different autocrine/paracrine factors such as EGF and TGF-alpha. In order to investigate the apoptotic process, the number of apoptotic cells were counted using Annexin V staining via flow cytometry. In addition, the expression levels of the Bcl-2, ICE and BAX genes were checked. RESULTS: c-AMP induced apoptosis was inhibited neither by EGF nor by TGF-alpha, but FSH induced apoptosis was inhibited by EGF and TGF-alpha. Both EGF and TGF-alpha decreased the rate of apoptosis in the serum free cultured media in a time dependent manner by inducing survival gene expression such as Bcl-2 and suppressing death gene expression such as ICE and BAX. CONCLUSION: EGF and TGF-alpha can be used to decrease the apoptotic rate of the rat granulosa cells. It is hoped to conduct a similar study on the function of these growth factors in the human granulosa cells, and to use EGF and TGF-alpha for reducing the apoptosis rate of the human granulosa cells in IVF.
Keywords :Granulosa cells;Epidermal growth factor;Transforming growth factor;Apoptosis
