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Ursula A. Vitt, Elizabeth A. McGee, Masaru Hayashi, Aaron J. W. Hsueh, In Vivo Treatment with GDF-9 Stimulates Primordial and Primary Follicle Progression and Theca Cell Marker CYP17 in Ovaries of Immature Rats, Endocrinology, Volume 141, Issue 10, October 2000, Pages 3814–3820, https://doi.org/10.1210/endo.141.10.7732
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Abstract
Growth differentiation factor (GDF)-9 is a cystine knot-containing hormone of the transforming growth factor-β superfamily produced by the oocyte. In GDF-9 null mice, follicle development is arrested at the primary stage and GDF-9 treatment in vitro enhances preantral follicle growth. Immature female rats were treated with recombinant GDF-9 for 7 or 10 days. At 10 days, treatment with GDF-9 augmented ovarian weights, concomitant with an increase in the number of primary and small preantral follicles by 30 and 60%, respectively. Furthermore, the number of primordial follicles was decreased by 29%, but the number of large preantral follicles was not affected. In contrast, treatment with FSH increased the number of small and large preantral follicles by 36 and 177% but did not influence the number of primary and primordial follicles. Immunoblot analysis showed an increase of CYP17, a theca cell marker, in the ovarian homogenate after treatment with GDF-9 but not FSH. The present results indicate that in vivo treatment with GDF-9 enhances the progression of primordial and primary follicles into small preantral follicles. Thus, GDF-9 treatment could provide an alternative approach to stimulate early follicle development in addition to the widely used FSH that acts mainly on the development of more advanced follicles.