Oocyte-granulosa cell interactions during mouse follicular development: regulation of kit ligand expression and its role
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BioMed Central
Open Access
Review
Oocyte-granulosa cell interactions during mouse follicular development: regulation of kit ligand expression and its role in oocyte growth Fiona H Thomas and Barbara C Vanderhyden* Address: Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, and Centre for Cancer Therapeutics, Ottawa Health Research Institute, 501 Smyth Road, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8L6, Canada Email: Fiona H Thomas - [email protected]; Barbara C Vanderhyden* - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 12 April 2006 Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology 2006, 4:19
doi:10.1186/1477-7827-4-19
Received: 07 October 2005 Accepted: 12 April 2006
This article is available from: http://www.rbej.com/content/4/1/19 © 2006 Thomas and Vanderhyden; 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 Ovarian folliculogenesis is regulated by both endocrine and intraovarian mechanisms that coordinate the processes of oocyte growth and somatic cell proliferation and differentiation. Within the follicle, paracrine interactions between the oocyte and surrounding granulosa cells are critical for normal cell development and function. This review focuses on the role of paracrine interactions during early oocyte and follicular development that ensure proper coordination of oocyte and somatic cell function. Particular emphasis is given to granulosa cell-derived Kit Ligand (KitL), whose functional importance for oocyte growth has been demonstrated by a wide range of in vivo and in vitro studies. Reported interactions between KitL and oocyte-derived growth differentiation factor-9 (GDF9) and bone morphogenetic protein-15 (BMP15) suggest the molecular basis of oocyte-granulosa cell interactions, but also hint at the complexity of these communications. These paracrine interactions and the structure of the oocyte-granulosa cell interface are follicle stage-specific and regulated by FSH. Elucidation of the molecular mechanisms that promote the development of healthy oocytes with good developmental competence has potential applications for improving fertility and for in vitro growth systems for oocytes from domestic animals and humans.
Introduction Development of the ovarian follicle requires coordination of the processes of somatic cell proliferation and differentiation with oocyte growth and maturation [1]. Paracrine interactions between the oocyte and surrounding granulosa cells are critical for ensuring this coordination by promoting integrated cellular functions [2-4]. One of the first ligand-receptor systems to be identified in the ovarian follicle is Kit Ligand (KitL) and the receptor tyrosine kinase Kit. Since the identification of KitL in 1990 [5-7], numerous in vitro and in vivo studies have provided evidence to
support its critical role in both fe
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