The body condition score (BCS) of cows affects their reproductive efficiency, but the underlying mechanism is unclear. We examined the effect of BCS on the basic ovarian cell functions and their responses to gonadotropic and metabolic hormones. We isolated ovarian cells from cows with a tendency toward emaciation (BCS2) and those with an average body condition (BCS3), and we compared their hormonal release and responses to FSH, leptin, ghrelin, and neuropeptide Y (NPY) added at doses of 0, 1, 10, or 100 ng/mL. Progesterone, testosterone, estradiol, and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) release were evaluated by RIA. No differences were found in progesterone or testosterone release between BCS2 and BCS3 cells; however, ovarian cells from BCS2 cows released more estradiol and IGF-I than cells from BCS3 cows. FSH, ghrelin, and NPY promoted progesterone release in BCS2 cells but had no stimulatory or inhibitory effect on BCS3 cells. In contrast, leptin promoted progesterone release in BCS3 cells and inhibited progesterone release in BCS2 cells. FSH also promoted testosterone release in both BCS2 and BCS3 cells but inhibited progesterone at a low dose in BCS3 cells. Leptin inhibited testosterone release in BCS3 cells but not in BCS2 cells. Estradiol release was promoted by leptin and ghrelin in BCS3 cells; however, it was unaffected by leptin and inhibited by ghrelin in BCS2 cells. IGF-I production was promoted by FSH and inhibited by leptin in both groups. Ghrelin suppressed IGF-I release in BCS2 cells and increased IGF-I release in BCS3 cells. NPY promoted IGF-I release in BCS2 cells but not in BCS3 cells. Our results demonstrate the effects of BCS on ovarian cell estradiol and IGF-I (but not progesterone or testosterone) release, as well as on the responses of ovarian cells to FSH, leptin, ghrelin, and NPY.
- MeSH
- Estradiol pharmacology MeSH
- Granulosa Cells drug effects secretion MeSH
- Ghrelin pharmacology MeSH
- Insulin-Like Growth Factor I pharmacology MeSH
- Cells, Cultured MeSH
- Leptin pharmacology MeSH
- Ovary cytology drug effects secretion MeSH
- Gonadal Steroid Hormones pharmacology MeSH
- Primary Cell Culture MeSH
- Progesterone pharmacology MeSH
- Cell Proliferation drug effects MeSH
- Cattle * MeSH
- Body Constitution physiology MeSH
- Testosterone pharmacology MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Check Tag
- Cattle * MeSH
- Female MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
Pre-implantation embryos derived by in vitro fertilization differ in their developmental potential from embryos obtained in vivo. In order to characterize changes in gene expression profiles caused by in vitro culture environment, we employed microarray constructed from bovine oocyte and preimplantation embryo-specific cDNAs (BlueChip, Université Laval, Québec). The analysis revealed changes in the level of 134 transcripts between in vitro derived (cultured in COOK BVC/BVB media) and in vivo derived 4-cell stage embryos and 97 transcripts were differentially expressed between 8-cell stage in vitro and in vivo embryos. The expression profiles of 7 selected transcripts (BUB3, CUL1, FBL, NOLC1, PCAF, GABPA and CNOT4) were studied in detail. We have identified a switch from Cullin 1-like transcript variant 1 to Cullin 1 transcript variant 3 (UniGene IDs BT.36789 and BT.6490, respectively) expressions around the time of bovine major gene activation (8-cell stage). New fibrillarin protein was detected by immunofluorescence already in early 8-cell stage and this detection correlated with increased level of fibrillarin mRNA. The qRT-PCR analysis revealed significant differences in the level of BUB3, NOLC1, PCAF, GABPA and CNOT4 gene transcripts between in vivo derived (IVD) and in vitro produced (IVP) embryos in late 8-cell stage. The combination of these genes represents a suitable tool for addressing questions concerning normal IVD embryo development and can be potentially useful as a marker of embryo quality in future attempts to optimize in vitro culture conditions.
- MeSH
- Blastocyst metabolism MeSH
- Embryonic Development genetics MeSH
- Cullin Proteins genetics metabolism MeSH
- Embryo Culture Techniques veterinary MeSH
- Culture Media MeSH
- Molecular Sequence Data MeSH
- Base Sequence MeSH
- Sequence Alignment MeSH
- Cattle MeSH
- Gene Expression Profiling MeSH
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Check Tag
- Cattle MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
- MeSH
- Time Factors MeSH
- Fertilization in Vitro MeSH
- Sperm-Ovum Interactions MeSH
- Oocytes cytology physiology MeSH
- Swine physiology MeSH
- Spermatozoa physiology MeSH
- Cleavage Stage, Ovum MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Check Tag
- Male MeSH
- Female MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Publication type
- Comparative Study MeSH
