Vitt U A, McGee E A, Hayashi M, Hsueh A J
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, California 94305-5317, USA.
Endocrinology. 2000 Oct;141(10):3814-20. doi: 10.1210/endo.141.10.7732.
Growth differentiation factor (GDF)-9 is a cystine knot-containing hormone of the transforming growth factor-beta superfamily produced by the oocyte. In GDF-9 null mice, follicle development is arrested at the primary stage and GDF-9 treatment in vitro enhances preantral follicle growth. Immature female rats were treated with recombinant GDF-9 for 7 or 10 days. At 10 days, treatment with GDF-9 augmented ovarian weights, concomitant with an increase in the number of primary and small preantral follicles by 30 and 60%, respectively. Furthermore, the number of primordial follicles was decreased by 29%, but the number of large preantral follicles was not affected. In contrast, treatment with FSH increased the number of small and large preantral follicles by 36 and 177% but did not influence the number of primary and primordial follicles. Immunoblot analysis showed an increase of CYP17, a theca cell marker, in the ovarian homogenate after treatment with GDF-9 but not FSH. The present results indicate that in vivo treatment with GDF-9 enhances the progression of primordial and primary follicles into small preantral follicles. Thus, GDF-9 treatment could provide an alternative approach to stimulate early follicle development in addition to the widely used FSH that acts mainly on the development of more advanced follicles.
生长分化因子（GDF）-9是一种由卵母细胞产生的、含胱氨酸结的转化生长因子-β超家族激素。在GDF-9基因敲除小鼠中，卵泡发育停滞在初级阶段，体外给予GDF-9可促进窦前卵泡生长。将未成熟雌性大鼠用重组GDF-9处理7天或10天。在第10天时，GDF-9处理增加了卵巢重量，同时初级卵泡和小窦前卵泡数量分别增加了30%和60%。此外，原始卵泡数量减少了29%，但大窦前卵泡数量未受影响。相比之下，促卵泡激素（FSH）处理使小窦前卵泡和大窦前卵泡数量分别增加了36%和177%，但不影响初级卵泡和原始卵泡数量。免疫印迹分析显示，GDF-9处理后卵巢匀浆中卵泡膜细胞标志物细胞色素P450 17α酶（CYP17）增加，而FSH处理后未增加。目前的结果表明，体内给予GDF-9可促进原始卵泡和初级卵泡向小窦前卵泡的发育进程。因此，除了广泛使用的主要作用于更高级卵泡发育的FSH外，GDF-9处理可为刺激早期卵泡发育提供另一种方法。
