HOX cofactors expression and regulation in the human ovary
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BioMed Central
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HOX cofactors expression and regulation in the human ovary Takayo Ota1, Haruka Asahina2, Se-Hyung Park1, Qing Huang1, Takashi Minegishi2, Nelly Auersperg1 and Peter CK Leung*1 Address: 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, BC, V6H 3V5, Canada and 2Department of Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Gunma, 371-8511, Japan Email: Takayo Ota - [email protected]; Haruka Asahina - [email protected]; Se-Hyung Park - [email protected]; Qing Huang - [email protected]; Takashi Minegishi - [email protected]; Nelly Auersperg - [email protected]; Peter CK Leung* - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 30 October 2008 Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology 2008, 6:49
doi:10.1186/1477-7827-6-49
Received: 18 August 2008 Accepted: 30 October 2008
This article is available from: http://www.rbej.com/content/6/1/49 © 2008 Ota et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract Background: HOX cofactors enhance HOX binding affinities and specificities and increase HOX's unique functional activities. The expression and the regulation of HOX cofactors in human ovaries are unknown. Methods: In this study, the expression of HOX cofactors, PBX1, PBX2, and MEIS1/2, were examined by using RT-PCR, immunofluorescence in cultured immortalized human granulosa (SVOG) cells. The distribution of these HOX cofactors in human ovaries was examined by immunohistochemistry. The effects of growth differentiation factor-9 (GDF-9) and folliclestimulating hormone (FSH) on PBX2 in SVOG cells were investigated by western blot analysis. Binding activities of HOXA7 and PBX2 to the specific sequences in granulosa cells were determined by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA). Results and conclusion: In SVOG cells, PBX1, PBX2 and MEIS1/2 were expressed during cell culture. In normal human ovaries, PBX1 and MEIS1/2 were expressed in granulosa cells at essentially all stages of follicular development. These cofactors were expressed in the nuclei of the granulosa cells from the primordial to the secondary follicles, whereas beyond multilayered follicles was observed in the cytoplasm. The co-expression of PBX1 and MEIS1/2 in granulosa cells in normal human ovaries suggested that MEIS1/2 might control PBX1 sublocalization, as seen in other systems. PBX2 was not expressed or weakly expressed in the primordial follicles. From the primary follicles to the preovulatory follicles, PBX2 expression was inconsistent and the expression was found in the granulosa cell nuclei. The PBX2 expression pattern is similar to HOXA7 expression in ovarian follicular development. Furthermore, FSH down-regulated,
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