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Dexamethasone altered steroidogenesis and changed redox status of granulosa cells

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Abstract

Glucocorticoids have been widely used in clinical application for anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive function. Previous study reported that glucocorticoids adversely affect the reproductive system and can directly act on ovary. Here, we found that progesterone production induced by dexamethasone requiring activation of caspase-3 which may mediate differentiation and apoptosis of granulosa cells. Further study displayed that cellular glutathione level was increased and reactive oxygen species was decreased accompanied with unchanged mitochondrial membrane potential which may contribute to the maintenance of steroidogenesis in granulosa cells treated with dexamethasone. Dexamethasone also augmented the level of anti-Müllerian hormone secreted by preovulatory granulosa cells which indicated that dexamethasone may promote preantral follicles development.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (81200418). Core facilities used in this research were provided by the Department of Genetics, National Research Institute for Family Planning and Central Laboratory, Shaanxi Provincial People’s Hospital.

Conflict of interest

We wish to draw the attention of the Editor to the following facts which may be considered as potential conflicts of interest and to significant financial contributions to this work. We wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication, and there has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome. We confirm that the manuscript has been read and approved by all named authors and that there are no other persons who satisfied the criteria for authorship but are not listed. We further confirm that the order of authors listed in the manuscript has been approved by all of us. We confirm that we have given due consideration to the protection of intellectual property associated with this work and that there are no impediments to publication, including the timing of publication, with respect to intellectual property. In so doing, we confirm that we have followed the regulations of our institutions concerning intellectual property.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maternity Department, Shaanxi Provincial People’s Hospital, Xi’an, 710068, China

    Xiao-Hua Yuan, Ying Hu, Yang-Yang Fan & Ya-Qin Wang

  2. Department of Genetics, National Research Institute for Family Planning, Beijing, 100081, China

    Xiao-Hua Yuan, Bai-Qing Yang, Cai-Ling Lu & Xu Ma

  3. Clinical Laboratory, Shaanxi Provincial People’s Hospital, Xi’an, China

    Li-Xia Zhang

  4. Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China

    Jia-Chen Zhou

  5. Graduate School of Peking Union Medical College; Department of Genetics, National Research Institute for Family Planning, Beijing, 100081, China

    Xu Ma

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  1. Xiao-Hua Yuan
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Correspondence to Ya-Qin Wang, Cai-Ling Lu or Xu Ma.

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Xiao-Hua Yuan, Bai-Qing Yang, and Ying Hu contributed equally to this work.

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Yuan, XH., Yang, BQ., Hu, Y. et al. Dexamethasone altered steroidogenesis and changed redox status of granulosa cells. Endocrine 47, 639–647 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-014-0250-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-014-0250-x

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