CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

A growing body of evidence suggests that ovulation shares many of the features of an inflammatory reactionand that cytokines play many diverse and important roles in reproductive biology. The aim of this studywas to examine the expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1a, IL-6 and tumour necrosisfactor (TNF)-a in ovarian cells from cows with cystic ovarian disease (COD) as compared with that inovarian structures from regularly cycling cows. Expression of genes encoding IL-1a, IL-6 and TNF-a was detectedby real-time polymerase chain reaction in follicular cells from ovaries from healthy cows and cows withCOD with no significant differences. However, immunohistochemistry showed increased expression of IL-1a,IL-6 and TNF-a in cystic follicles, suggesting that this expression may be related to the persistence of follicularcysts. The effect of COD was evident for IL-1a and TNF-a, and a follicular structureedisease interaction wasobserved in the expression of all the cytokines evaluated. Thus, altered expression of these proinflammatorycytokines may be related to ovulation failure and development of follicular cysts.