Oocyte maturation is inhibited by adenosine in the presence of follicle-stimulating hormone.

Considerable evidence implicates cyclic 3', 5' adenosine monophosphate (AMP) in the maintenance of meiotic arrest of mammalian oocytes. Since this laboratory previously found that adenosine augmented follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)-stimulated accumulation of cyclic AMP in oocyte-cumulus-complexes (OCC), in the present studies we investigated the possibility that adenosine inhibits maturation of oocytes. In rat OCC cultured in the presence of FSH, adenosine markedly inhibited oocyte maturation in a dose-dependent and biphasic manner. Maximum inhibition of oocyte maturation was seen with 1-30 microM adenosine in the presence of FSH, and half-maximal inhibition occurred with less than 0.3 microM adenosine. High levels of adenosine (100 microM) did not inhibit oocyte maturation in the presence of FSH. In the absence of FSH, adenosine showed little effect on oocyte maturation in the present studies, but increased the maximum inhibition of oocyte maturation produced by FSH approximately twofold. Like adenosine, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), adenosine diphosphate (ADP), and adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP) also inhibited oocyte maturation; whereas adenine, guanosine, inosine, and hypoxanthine were inactive at equivalent levels. The metabolism-resistant adenosine analog (2-chloroadenosine) was as active an inhibitor as adenosine. Inhibition produced by the adenine nucleotides may have been direct or due to conversion to adenosine by extracellular nucleotidases. The concentration dependence and purine specificity for inhibition of oocyte maturation are characteristic of an adenosine receptor-mediated process, but direct evidence for such a mechanism was not shown. The effective concentration of adenosine for inhibition of oocyte maturation is within the range of reported levels of adenosine in biological tissues and fluids.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)