Non-suckling starvation of neonatal mice promotes primordial follicle formation with activation of ovarian autophagy.

ABSTRACT: Around the time of oocyte meiotic arrest, germ cell nest breakdown occurs, and primordial follicle (PF) formation is initiated at the perinatal stage. Recently, autophagy was implicated in this process. Autophagy is induced by nutrient starvation. This study was conducted to understand how starvation affects PF formation and autophagy induction during neonatal life. Suckling of neonatal female mice was blocked immediately after birth for 12-36 h to induce starvation. The numbers of PFs at each stage were subsequently counted from serial sections of ovaries. The expression of autophagy-related proteins was also evaluated. The number of PFs peaked at 60 h after birth in the control group. The numbers for the starvation groups were significantly higher than those for the control groups at 12

SUBMITTER: Watanabe R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5830363 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature