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Murine folliculogenesis in vitro is stage-specifically regulated by insulin via the Akt signaling pathway

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Abstract

Folliculogenesis is a critical process during mammalian development, but little is known about the mechanisms underlying primordial follicular formation, growth, and activation. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of continuous insulin exposure on folliculogenesis in 16.5 dpc and 3 dpp mouse ovaries in vitro. The results demonstrated that 5 μg/ml insulin promotes the phosphorylation of Akt and the primordial follicular assembly and activation process via the InsR/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway in the 16.5 dpc fetal mouse ovaries cultured in vitro. However, the presence of 5 μg/ml insulin represses the phosphorylation of Akt and the follicular assembly and activation process in the 3 dpp mouse ovaries cultured in vitro. Furthermore, in vitro cultures of 3 dpp mouse ovaries with insulin can repress the expression of Pten. In conclusion, folliculogenesis was stage-specifically regulated by insulin via the Akt signaling pathway in vitro.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Paul Dyce for critical reading of the manuscript. Financial support was obtained from National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2007CB947401 and 2006CB504003), National Nature Science Foundation (30700422), 863 Program of China (2008AA101003), Foundation of Taishan Scholar of Shandong Province.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Germ Cell Biology, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, 266109, China

    Pan Zhang, Huhe Chao, Xiaofeng Sun, Lan Li & Wei Shen

  2. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, Anhui, China

    Qinghua Shi

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  1. Pan Zhang
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  2. Huhe Chao
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  3. Xiaofeng Sun
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  4. Lan Li
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  5. Qinghua Shi
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  6. Wei Shen
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Correspondence to Wei Shen.

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418_2010_708_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Supplement Fig. 1 Bisulfite sequencing analysis of the methylation status of Pten in the oocytes derived from 3 dpp mouse ovaries cultured in vitro with different concentrations of insulin for 5 days Supplementary material 1 (TIFF 171 kb)

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Zhang, P., Chao, H., Sun, X. et al. Murine folliculogenesis in vitro is stage-specifically regulated by insulin via the Akt signaling pathway. Histochem Cell Biol 134, 75–82 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00418-010-0708-8

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