Bench to bedside: clinical opportunities for microarray analysis

Differential Expression of Long Noncoding RNAs in Human Cumulus Cells Related to Embryo Developmental Potential: A Microarray Analysis

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), which are prevalently transcribed in the genome, are involved in a variety of biological functions, yet little is known about their abundance in human cumulus cells (CCs) during oocyte development. Here, we describe the expression profile of lncRNAs in 3 pairs of cumulus cells from mature oocytes that result in high-quality embryo (H-CCs) and from oocytes that result in poor-quality embryo (P-CCs) using microarray analysis. In this study, a total of 20 563 lncRNAs were expressed in human CCs. One hundred and twenty four lncRNAs were consistently upregulated, and 509 lncRNAs were consistently downregulated in all samples analyzed (fold change ≥ 2.0, P < .05). Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to validate 5 upregulated and 7 downregulated lncRNAs. The qRT-PCR results in the study were confirmed to be consistent with the microarray results. Network analysis was used for further research. The results displayed the differentially expressed lncRNAs in P-CCs between H-CCs, which suggested that lncRNAs may contribute to the processes of oocyte and early embryo development.

Oral contraceptive use and female genital arousal: methodological considerations

This study explored effects of oral contraceptive pill (OCP) use on physiological sexual arousal as measured by a vaginal photoplethysmograph. Sixteen women aged 18-29 viewed audiovisual neutral and erotic stimuli before and an average of 6 weeks following the onset of OCP use. Although subjective measures of sexual arousal, including perceptions of genital arousal, significantly increased in response to erotic stimuli both before and after OCP onset, physiological sexual arousal only increased before OCP use. A comparison of individual responses before and after OCP onset reveals a much higher degree of intrasubject variability after OCP onset. We discuss these findings as they relate to OCP use as a confounding methodological variable to consider in future investigations employing vaginal photoplethysmography.

Studies of gene expression in human cumulus cells indicate pentraxin 3 as a possible marker for oocyte quality

OBJECTIVE

To search for differentially expressed genes in cumulus cells from two groups of oocytes with different developmental outcome in vitro.

DESIGN

Analyses of gene expression in human cumulus cells from oocytes that failed to fertilize in vitro (group A) and those that developed into normal-appearing embryos on day 3 (group B).

SETTING

University-based facilities for clinical service and research.

PATIENT(S)

Women undergoing IVF treatment for infertility.

INTERVENTION(S)

Cumulus cells were collected from oocytes that were aspirated from ovarian follicles for IVF. The oocytes were cultured individually for IVF and embryo development. Total RNA was extracted from the cumulus cells for gene expression analyses.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)

General gene expression profiles and relative abundance of pentraxin 3 (Ptx3) mRNA.

RESULT(S)

DNA microarray analysis identified 160 genes, including Ptx3, that were differentially expressed between cumulus cells in group A and group B. Quantitative analysis confirmed that the relative abundance of Ptx3 mRNA in cumulus cells was highly associated with oocyte development.

CONCLUSION(S)

This study demonstrated that changes in the expression levels of 160 genes, including particularly Ptx3, in human cumulus cells may be indicative of the quality of their enclosed oocyte.