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Increased stiffness mimicking ovarian aging induces a fibroinflammatory response in follicles and impairs oocyte quality

ABSTRACT: Reproductive aging in females is characterized by decreased ovarian reserve and oocyte quality. With aging, both mouse and human ovaries become pro-fibrotic and stiff. However, whether follicles sense and respond to microenvironmental stiffness and affect folliculogenesis and oocyte quality independent of other aging-related factors is unknown. To address this question, we cultured mouse secondary follicles in alginate hydrogels that reproduce the stiffness of young and reproductively old mice. RNA-sequencing revealed that follicles respond rapidly to increased stiffness and exhibit enrichment in genes related to inflammation and extracellular matrix remodeling. Long-term culture in stiff hydrogels resulted in reduced follicle survival, granulosa cell viability, estradiol synthesis, and oocyte quality. To begin to determine how stiffness is transmitted within the follicle, we examined transzonal projections, which mediate granulosa cell–oocyte communication and nutrient exchange. In stiff conditions, the number of transzonal projections decreased. Our findings demonstrate that follicles are highly mechanosensitive and that stiffness alone can trigger hallmarks of ovarian aging, including reduced follicle growth, reduced oocyte quality, and a fibroinflammatory phenotype potentially integrated to the oocyte via TZPs.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE317288 | GEO | 2026/01/27

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Purpose: Preovualtory follicle diameter influences embryo quality in beef cattle that rely on a gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) injection to induce the preovualtory gonadotropin surge and subsequent ovualtion. The goals of this study are to compare transcriptome profiles of pools of four oocytes or associated cumulus cells collected from small (≤11.7mm) and large follicles (≥12.7 mm) exposed to a GnRH-induced gonadotropin surge and follicles (11.7-14.0 mm) exposed to an endogenous gonadotropin surge (spontaneous follicles). Methods: Oocyte and cumulus cell mRNA profiles of pools of four oocytes or associated cumulus cells collected from small (≤11.7mm) and large follicles (≥12.7 mm) exposed to a GnRH-induced gonadotropin surge or spontaneous follicles (11.7-14.0 mm) which were exposed to an endogenous gonadotropin surge were generated by deep sequencing (n=6 small follicle oocyte, 6 small follicle cumulus, 6 large follicle oocyte, 6 large follicle cumulus, 4 spontaneous follcile oocyte, and 5 spontaneous follicle cumulus pools), using Illumina HiSeq 2000 . The sequence reads that passed quality filters were aligned to the Bos taurus reference genome UMD3.1 using Hisat2mapper. FeatureCounts was used to quantify transcript abundance in each library using Bos taurus gene annotation from Ensembl. Differences in gene transcript expression were then analyzed amoung oocyte or cumulus cell follcile classifications using the packages edgeR and DESeq2 in R software. Results: We mapped an average of 30 million sequence reads per sample to the Bos taurus reference genome UMD3.1 and identified 69, 94, and 83 differentially expressed gene transcripts (DEG) among oocyte libraries from small versus large, small versus spontaneous, and large versus spontaneous follicle classifications, respectively. We also identified 128, 98, and 80 DEG among cumulus cell libraries from small versus large, small versus spontaneous, and large versus spontaneous follicles, respectively. Conclusions: Our study represents detailed analysis of RNA-sequencing data generated from in vivo produced cumulus and oocyte samples collected from preovualtory follicles of varied physiological status after exposure to an endogenous or exogenously stimulated gonadotropin surge. The results of our study highlight key differences in the transcriptome of samples from small, large, or spontaneous follicles and provide insight into the reduced embryo quality observed when small follicles undergo a GnRH induced gonadotropin surge.

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Increased stiffness mimicking ovarian aging induces a fibroinflammatory response in follicles and impairs oocyte quality

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