Regulation of the apoptosis on the rat granulosa cell: effects of EGF, TGF-alpha / 대한산부인과학회잡지

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.