Cheng Kaixin, Feng Xie'an, Yang Chen, Ma Chiyuan, Niu Shudong, Jia Longzhong, Yang Xuebing, Liang Jing, Bo Yingnan, Geng Kaiying, Li Qin, Zhang Hua, Lei Xiaohua, Zhang Yan
State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China.
Center for Energy Metabolism and Reproduction, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
NPJ Microgravity. 2023 Jan 23;9(1):7. doi: 10.1038/s41526-023-00248-5.
Ovarian follicles are the fundamental structures that support oocyte development, and communications between oocytes and follicle somatic cells are crucial for oogenesis. However, it is unknown that whether exposure to microgravity influences cellular communications and ovarian follicle development, which might be harmful for female fertility. By 3D culturing of ovarian follicles under simulated microgravity (SMG) conditions in a rotating cell culture system, we found that SMG treatment did not affect the survival or general growth of follicles but decreased the quality of cultured follicles released oocytes. Ultrastructure detections by high-resolution imaging showed that the development of cellular communicating structures, including granulosa cell transzonal projections and oocyte microvilli, were markedly disrupted. These abnormalities caused chaotic polarity of granulosa cells (GCs) and a decrease in oocyte-secreted factors, such as Growth Differentiation Factor 9 (GDF9), which led to decreased quality of oocytes in these follicles. Therefore, the quality of oocytes was dramatically improved by the supplementations of GDF9 and NADPH-oxidase inhibitor apocynin. Together, our results suggest that exposure to simulated microgravity impairs the ultrastructure of ovarian follicles. Such impairment may affect female fertility in space environment.
卵巢卵泡是支持卵母细胞发育的基本结构，卵母细胞与卵泡体细胞之间的通讯对于卵子发生至关重要。然而，暴露于微重力环境是否会影响细胞通讯和卵巢卵泡发育尚不清楚，而这可能对女性生育能力有害。通过在旋转细胞培养系统中模拟微重力（SMG）条件下对卵巢卵泡进行三维培养，我们发现SMG处理并不影响卵泡的存活或总体生长，但降低了培养卵泡释放卵母细胞的质量。高分辨率成像的超微结构检测表明，包括颗粒细胞跨区突起和卵母细胞微绒毛在内的细胞通讯结构的发育明显受到破坏。这些异常导致颗粒细胞（GCs）极性紊乱以及卵母细胞分泌因子如生长分化因子9（GDF9）减少，从而导致这些卵泡中卵母细胞质量下降。因此，补充GDF9和NADPH氧化酶抑制剂夹竹桃麻素可显著提高卵母细胞质量。总之，我们的结果表明，暴露于模拟微重力会损害卵巢卵泡的超微结构。这种损害可能会影响太空环境中的女性生育能力。
