Project description:Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) is defined as a primary ovarian defect characterized by absent menarche (primary amenorrhea) or premature depletion of ovarian follicles before the age of 40 (secondary amenorrhea) with hypergonadotropism and hypoestrogenism. Premature ovarian insufficiency has few known genetic causes but in familial cases a genetic link is often suspected. A large consanguineous family with three female affected with POI was investigated. All samples including 3 affected and 5 unaffecd underwent whole genome SNP genotyping using Affymetric Axiom_GW_Hu_SNP array. Linkage analysis was carried out using HomozygosityMapper and Allegro softwares.Linkage analysis mapped the disease phenotype to long arm of chromosome 20. Sequence data analysis of potential candidate genes failed to detect any pathogenic variant.
Project description:Primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) is a clinical syndrome of ovarian dysfunction characterized by premature exhaustion of primordial follicles. POI causes infertility, serious daily life disturbances and long-term health risks. However, the underlying mechanism remains largely unknown. We have previously identified Basonuclin1 (BNC1) mutation from a large Chinese POI pedigree and find the targeted Bnc1 mutation mouse exhibites POI. In this study, we find that BNC1 plays a key role in the dynamic balance of ovarian reserve, and maintaining lipid metabolism and redox homeostasis in oocytes during follicular development. Deficiency of BNC1 results in premature follicular activation and accelerated follicular atresia, but doesn’t affect the ovarian primordial follicle reserve. Mechanistically, BNC1 targets the NF2-YAP pathway to trigger oocyte ferroptosis. Inhibition of ferroptosis significantly rescues POI. These findings uncover a novel pathologic mechanism of POI based on BNC1 deficiency and is the first report showing ferroptosis involved in oocyte death.
Project description:Gene expression profiling of immortalized human mesenchymal stem cells with hTERT/E6/E7 transfected MSCs. hTERT may change gene expression in MSCs. Goal was to determine the gene expressions of immortalized MSCs.
