EFFECT OF FOLLICULAR-FLUID ON GRANULOSA-LUTEAL CELLS FROM POLYCYSTIC OVARY

Recent data suggest that follicular fluid may play an important role i n the endocrine balance of polycystic ovary syndrome, probably by acti ng on the theca-granulosa cell relationship, The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of steroid-free follicular fluid on steroidal response and cell proliferation of human granulosa luteal cells from p olycystic (POGC) and normal ovary (NC), Granulosa cells (from both POG C and NC) were cultured for 48 h with or without increasing dilutions of follicular fluid (FF) obtained from polycystic (FFp) and normo-ovul ating (FFc) patients, Both follicular fluids were able to elicit aroma tase activity as well as progesterone production and thymidine incorpo ration, POGC, when incubated with FFp, showed a lower increase of arom atase activity and progesterone production with respect to NC, Further more, the proliferation rate was increased by incubation with either f ollicular fluid, but the increase was less with FFp compared to FFc. A romatase/[H-3]thymidine (A/T) and progesterone/[H-3]thymidine (P/T) ra tios could be considered to be representative of the contribution of t he single cell unit to steroidogenesis. Using high concentrations of e ither follicular fluids, POGC showed a higher A/T ratio compared with NC, Moreover, the same treatment strongly decreased P/T ratio in POGC, while it was ineffective in NC, Our study shows that an abnormal inte raction between POGC and their own follicular fluid could be implicate d in the pathogenesis of the altered steroidal response in these cells , and that in particular it could affect the proliferation rate.