OBJECTIVE To extend our previous observations of granulosa cell conditioned medium inhibition on basal and FSH-stimulated progesterone secretion by granulosa cells from large porcine antral follicles. METHODS Granulosa cell conditioned media (SGCCM) were obtained from cultures of granulosa cells which were harvested from small porcine antral follicles. SGCCM were fractionated by filtration th...

The molecular pathogenesis of granulosa cell tumors of the ovary is not understood, although recent studies have shown that immunoreactive inhibin secretion by these tumors may be used as a tumor marker. Granulosa cell tumors exhibit many features of normal granulosa cells, including a response to FSH and inhibin secretion. FSH levels are suppressed in patients with inhibin-secreting granulosa ...

Follicular development is associated with both proliferation and differentiation of granulosa cells under the control of FSH. We show that regulation of genes involved in cellular proliferation by FSH can be functionally separated from the regulation of genes involved in granulosa cell differentiation by synergistic actions of activin and T. Incubation of undifferentiated rat granulosa cells wi...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Granulosa cell tumours of the ovary are relatively uncommon malignant tumours. Although the majority of patients present with early-stage disease that is curable, approximately 80% of patients with advanced tumours die from recurrent disease. The purpose of this review is to provide the clinician with an update on recent research relevant to granulosa cell tumours. RECENT FI...

Leptin, a recently-discovered hormonal product of the obese gene, circulates in the blood at levels paralleling those of fat reserves and regulates satiety and improves reproductive performance if injected into mice lacking circulating leptin. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that leptin signals metabolic information to the reproductive system by directly affecting granulosa cell function. D...

Development of animal germ cells depends critically on continuous contact and communication with the somatic compartment of the gonad. In females, each oocyte is enclosed within a follicle, whose somatic cells supply nutrients that sustain basal metabolic activity of the oocyte and send signals that regulate its differentiation. This maternal microenvironment thus plays an indispensable role in...

Vitamin D3 is a fat-soluble secosteroid responsible for enhancing intestinal absorption of calcium, iron, and other materials. Vitamin D3 deficiency, therefore, can cause health problems such as metabolic diseases, and bone disorder. Female sex hormones including estrogen and progesterone are biosynthesized mainly in the granulosa cells of ovary. In this study, we isolated granulosa cells from ...

We established a steroidogenic human ovarian granulosa-like tumor cell line, designated KGN, from a patient with invasive ovarian granulosa cell carcinoma. KGN had a relatively long population doubling time of about 46.4 h and had an abnormal karyotype of 45,XX, 7q-, -22. A steroid analysis of the cultured medium by RIA performed 5 yr after the initiation of culture showed that KGN was able to ...

BACKGROUND Peroxisome proliferative-activated receptors (PPARs) are nuclear receptors that involved in cellular lipid metabolism and differentiation. The subtype γ of the PPAR family (PPARγ) plays important roles in physiologic functions of ovaries. OBJECTIVE To determine correlation between PPARγ protein level in granulosa cells and pregnancy rate in women undergoing in-vitro fertilization (...

We investigated the production of oxytocin (OT) and oxytocin-neurophysin (bNpI) by bovine granulosa cells cultured in presence of 10% foetal calf serum, a condition known to induce spontaneous luteinization of these cells. The production of immunoreactive OT was significantly higher in the cultures of granulosa cells harvested from large follicles than in those derived from small follicles. Chr...