Albumin Fractions from Different Species Stimulate In Vitro Progesterone Production by Granulosa Cells in Buffalo

The ovarian follicular fluid was found to contain steroidogenesis stimulatory protein similar to albumin from human and buffalo. Therefore, the albumins from various species, commercial and purified, were studied for their steroidogenic effect on progesterone secretion by granulosa cells from buffalo ovaries, during culture. A dose of 20 μg of bovine serum albumin was optimum to exhibit maximum progesterone secretion on day 6 of culture, in medium (350 μl) containing 10 cells. Among commercial albumins, chicken albumin showed highest effect on progesterone secretion, which was followed by albumins from goat, bovine, human, sheep and rat, respectively at day 6 of culture. The albumins were also purified from blood serum of buffalo, goat and rat using salt fractionation, ion-exchange chromatography, gel filtration and SDS-PAGE. The highest stimulatory effect on progesterone secretion was shown by albumin purified from buffalo blood serum and lowest by that from rat blood. Comparatively the buffalo and goat albumins were more biologically active than commercial albumins. The presence of some active molecules conjugated with freshly purified albumins may be responsible for better stimulatory effect. (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2002. Vol 15, No. 11 : 1559-1563)