Anti-apoptotic effect of Humanin against oxidative stress in granulosa cells

JULIA G. CONTE; ADRIANA SEILICOVICH; MERCEDES IMSEN; GABRIELA JAITA ; M. SOL GOSSO; MARINA PELUFFO

Reston, VA

Congreso; SSR Virtual 2020; 2020

Society for the Study of Reproduction

Humanin (HN) exerts a cytoprotective action in the presence of pro-oxidative agents in several tissues. Recently, we demonstrated the expression of HN in the ovary of prepuberal and adult rats. Also, we showed a differential location dependent on the follicular stage. In the present study, our aim was to evaluate the anti-apoptotic action of HN, as a cytoprotective mechanism against oxidative stress in granulosa cells. To explore this aim, we examined the effect of HN on apoptosis in granulosa cells from ovaries of prepuberal and adult rats incubated in a pro-oxidative environment. Thus, we incubated each ovary from prepuberal or adult rats with HN (1μM) for 30 min and H2O2 (150 μM) for further 1 or 2 h, respectively. Contralateral ovaries from rats of each treatment were used as respective controls. We determined the number of apoptotic granulosa cells per follicle by TUNEL. In prepuberal ovaries, we observed that HN decreased the number of apoptotic granulosa cells per follicle induced by H202 (C: 3.8 vs HN: 3.0 ns.; C: 1.7 vs H202: 5.7 p