Low Oxygen Levels Induce Early Luteinization Associated Changes in Bovine Granulosa Cells

During follicle maturation, oxygen levels continuously decrease in the follicular fluid and reach lowest levels in the preovulatory follicle. The current study was designed to comprehensively understand effects of low oxygen levels on bovine granulosa cells (GC) using our established estrogen active GC culture model. As evident from flow cytometry analysis the viability of GC was not found to be affected at severely low oxygen condition (1% O2) compared to normal (atmospheric) oxygen condition (21% O2). Estimations of hormone concentrations using competitive radioimmunoassay revealed that the production of estradiol and progesterone was significantly reduced at low oxygen condition. To understand the genome-wide changes of gene expression, mRNA microarray analysis was performed using Affymetrix's Bovine Gene 1.0 ST Arrays. This resulted in the identification of 1104 differentially regulated genes of which 505 were up- and 599 down-regulated under low oxygen conditions. Pathway analysis using Ingenuity pathway analyzer (IPA) identified 36 significantly affected (p < 0.05) canonical pathways. Importantly, pathways like "Estrogen-mediated S-phase Entry" and "Cyclins and Cell Cycle Regulation" were found to be greatly down-regulated at low oxygen levels. This was experimentally validated using flow cytometry based cell cycle analysis. Up-regulation of critical genes associated with angiogenesis, inflammation, and glucose metabolism, and down-regulation of FSH signaling, steroidogenesis and cell proliferation indicated that low oxygen levels induced early luteinization associated changes in granulosa cells. Identification of unmethylated CpG sites in the CYP19A1 promoter region suggests that granulosa cells were not completely transformed into luteal cells under the present low oxygen in vitro condition. In addition, the comparison with earlier published in vivo microarray data indicated that 1107 genes showed a similar expression pattern in granulosa cells at low oxygen levels (in vitro) as found in preovulatory follicles after the LH surge (in vivo). Overall, our findings demonstrate for the first time that low oxygen levels in preovulatory follicles may play an important role in supporting early events of luteinization in granulosa cells.

mRNA microarray data of FACS purified bovine small and large luteal cells

Transcriptome profiling of FACS purified small luteal cells (SLC) and large luteal cells (LLC), isolated from mid-cycle corpora lutea (day 10-11), was performed using Affymetrix GeneChip Bovine Gene 1.0 ST Arrays. Gene expression was recorded using an Affymetrix gene chip scanner 3000. The corresponding expression array intensity (.CEL) files were deposited in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GSE106641). The subsequent expression analyses of CEL files were carried out for identifying important transcripts and their functions associated with SLC and LLC. These data have been comprehensively evaluated and interpreted in the companion article, "Global gene expression analysis indicates that small luteal cells are involved in extracellular matrix modulation and immune cell recruitment in the bovine corpus luteum" [1].

Suitable housekeeping genes for normalization of transcript abundance analysis by real-time RT-PCR in cultured bovine granulosa cells during hypoxia and differential cell plating density

BACKGROUND

Bovine granulosa cell culture models are important to understand molecular mechanisms of ovarian function. Folliculogenesis and luteinization are associated with increasing density of cells and local hypoxic conditions. The current study identified two reliable housekeeping genes useful for gene normalization in granulosa cells under different in vitro conditions.

METHODS

During the current experiments cells were subjected to different biological and physical stimuli, follicle stimulating hormone, different initial cell plating density and hypoxia. Transcript abundance of seven housekeeping genes was quantified by real-time RT-PCR with co-amplification of the respective external standard.

RESULTS

Three of the genes, GAPDH, HMBS, and HPRT1 were found to be regulated by initial cell plating density, five of them, GAPDH, HMBS, HPRT1, RPLP0 and RPS18 under hypoxic conditions, but none of them after FSH stimulation. In detail, GAPDH was up regulated, but HPRT1 and HMBS were down regulated at high density and under hypoxia. Expression of RPLP0 and RPS18 was inconsistent, but was significantly down-regulated in particular at high cell density combined with hypoxia. In contrast, TBP and B2M genes were neither regulated under different plating density conditions nor by hypoxia as they showed similar expression levels under all conditions analyzed.

CONCLUSIONS

The present data indicate that TBP and B2M are appropriate housekeeping genes for normalization of transcript abundance measured by real-time RT-PCR in granulosa cells subjected to different plating densities, oxygen concentrations and FSH stimulation.