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Follicle-stimulating hormone regulation of microRNA expression on progesterone production in cultured rat granulosa cells

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Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally by interacting with the 3′ untranslated regions of their target mRNAs. Previously, miRNAs have been shown to regulate genes involved in cell growth, apoptosis, and differentiation, but their role in ovarian granulosa cell follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)-stimulated steroidogenesis is unclear. Here we show that expression of 31 miRNAs is altered during FSH-mediated progesterone secretion of cultured granulosa cells. Specifically, 12 h after FSH treatment, miRNAs mir-29a and mir-30d were significantly down-regulated. However, their expression increased after 48 h. Bioinformatic analysis used to predict potential targets of mir-29a and mir-30d revealed a wide array of potential mRNA target genes, including those encoding genes involved in multiple signaling pathways. Taken together, our results pointed to a novel mechanism for the pleiotropic effects of FSH.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by National Basic Research Program of China (973) (No. 2010CB529504), Important National Science & Technology Specific Projects (No. 2009ZX09308-006), National Nonprofit Institute Research Grant of NRIFP, and the Denaturing High-performance Liquid chromatography System Update and its Application in Chinese Genetic Resource (No. 2006JG006100). Core facilities used in this research were provided by the Department of Genetics, National Research Institute for Family Planning. The authors would like to thank Prof. Yixun Liu and Prof. Jian Xu for help in primary granulosa cell culture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China

    Nan Yao, Bai-Qing Yang, Xiao-Hua Yuan & Xu Ma

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

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

  3. Department of Etiology and Carcinogenesis, Cancer Institute (Hospital), Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China

    Yu Liu

  4. Key Lab Genome Science & Informat, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Xin-Yu Tan

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  1. Nan Yao
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Correspondence to Cai-Ling Lu or Xu Ma.

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Bai-Qing Yang has contributed equally to this work.

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Yao, N., Yang, BQ., Liu, Y. et al. Follicle-stimulating hormone regulation of microRNA expression on progesterone production in cultured rat granulosa cells. Endocr 38, 158–166 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-010-9345-1

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