Morphological and biochemical identification of apoptosis in small, medium, and large bovine follicles and the effects of follicle-stimulating hormone and insulin-like growth factor-I on spontaneous apoptosis in cultured bovine granulosa cells
My. Yang et R. Rajamahendran, Morphological and biochemical identification of apoptosis in small, medium, and large bovine follicles and the effects of follicle-stimulating hormone and insulin-like growth factor-I on spontaneous apoptosis in cultured bovine granulosa cells, BIOL REPROD, 62(5), 2000, pp. 1209-1217
The first objective of this study was to determine whether the death of bov
ine granulosa cells (CC) isolated from small (less than or equal to 4 mm),
medium (5-8 mm), and large (> 8 mm) follicles during follicular atresia occ
urs by apoptosis. The second objective was to establish an in vitro model s
ystem to elucidate the developmental (CC from follicles of different sizes)
and hormonal (FSH and insulin-like growth factor-I [IGF-I]) regulation of
bovine GC apoptosis during follicular atresia. Bovine ovaries were obtained
from a nearby slaughterhouse. Follicles were classified by morphometric cr
iteria as healthy or atretic. Apoptosis in GC from follicles of different s
izes was analyzed by both morphological and biochemical methods. Bovine GC
were cultured for 48 h at a density of 5 x 10(6) cells/mi in serum-free med
ia at 39 degrees C to determine the effects of FSH and ICF-I on apoptosis.
The results showed that apoptosis occurred in GC from all sizes of follicle
s. Apoptosis in CC was also detected in some healthy follicles. Degenerate
CC displayed the morphological characteristics of apoptosis, including nucl
ei with marginated chromatin, a single condensed nucleus, multiple nuclear
fragments, and/or membrane-bound structures containing variable amounts of
chromatin and/or cytoplasm (apoptotic bodies). All CC classified as apoptot
ic on the basis of their morphology contained fragmented DNA measured by th
e terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end-labeling (TU
NEL) technique. Cells that had undergone apoptosis were observed mainly in
GC and in scattered theca cells. Throughout the CC layer, apoptotic cell de
ath was more prevalent among antral CC than among mural CC. Interestingly,
morphological results showed that no apoptosis occurred in cumulus cells. A
time-dependent, spontaneous onset of apoptosis occurred in CC from small,
medium, and large follicles during in vitro serum-free culture. The rate of
DNA fragmentation in the culture of CC from small follicles was higher tha
n that from medium and large follicles. FSH attenuated apoptotic cell death
in CC from medium follicles more effectively than in those from small foll
icles. IGF-I also suppressed apoptosis in cultured CC from small follicles.
In conclusion, this study showed that 1) CC death during bovine follicular
development and atresia occurs by apoptosis; 2) apoptosis occurs in CC and
theca cells; however, apoptosis does not occur in cumulus cells even in at
retic antral follicles; 3) CC from all small, medium, and large follicles u
ndergo spontaneous onset of apoptosis when cultured under serum-free condit
ions; and 4) FSH and IGF-I can attenuate apoptosis in cultured bovine GC.