Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2013 Sep 10;8(9):e74385. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0074385. eCollection 2013.
Follicular fluid (FF) contains various cytokines that are involved with folliculogenesis, some of which have been shown to be associated with oocyte quality and the implantation potential of a resulting embryo. Several IL-1 family members have previously been identified in FF. This study investigates a newly identified member of the family, IL-33, and its receptor ST2, comparing values to those of FF Granulocyte-Colony Stimulating Factor (G-CSF)--a known predictor of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) success. FF was collected from patients undergoing in vitro fertilisation/intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) at oocyte retrieval to analyse IL-33 and sST2 expression in human follicles. sST2, but not IL-33, is highly increased in the FF compared to plasma levels (up to 7.9-fold), with higher levels in larger follicles (p<0.05). Furthermore, we identify that human luteinised granulosa cells are one possible source of the FF sST2, as these cells express and secrete sST2 when cultured ex vivo. FF associated with oocytes which when fertilised develop into good quality embryos have higher sST2 levels than those which are graded average (p<0.01). These embryos were transferred to the patient and levels of FF sST2 compared between successful and unsuccessful ICSI cycles. However unlike G-CSF, sST2 levels cannot be used to predict cycle outcome.
卵泡液（FF）中含有各种参与卵泡发生的细胞因子，其中一些已被证明与卵母细胞质量和由此产生的胚胎的着床潜力有关。FF 中先前已经鉴定出几种白细胞介素-1 家族成员。本研究调查了家族的一个新成员，IL-33 及其受体 ST2，并将其与 FF 粒细胞集落刺激因子（G-CSF）的值进行比较，G-CSF 是辅助生殖技术（ART）成功的已知预测因子。在卵母细胞回收时从接受体外受精/胞浆内精子注射（IVF/ICSI）的患者中收集 FF，以分析人卵泡中 IL-33 和 sST2 的表达。与血浆水平相比，FF 中 sST2（高达 7.9 倍）高度升高，而较大的卵泡中 sST2 水平更高（p<0.05）。此外，我们确定人黄体化颗粒细胞是 FF sST2 的一个可能来源，因为这些细胞在体外培养时表达和分泌 sST2。与那些被评为平均水平的卵母细胞相比，与发育成优质胚胎的卵母细胞相关的 FF sST2 水平更高（p<0.01）。这些胚胎被转移到患者身上，并比较了成功和不成功的 ICSI 周期之间的 FF sST2 水平。然而，与 G-CSF 不同，sST2 水平不能用于预测周期结果。
