EXPRESSION OF GHRELIN AND ITS RECEPTOR IN BOVINE CUMULUS?OOCYTE COMPLEX.

SIRINI MA; ANCHORDOQUY JM; ANCHORDOQUY JP; BARBISAN G; RELLING AE; FURNUS CC

Jornada; XVI Jornadas Anuales de la Sociedad Argentina de Biología; 2014

Ghrelin is a 28 amino acid gastric peptide. This hormone is associated with the food intake and energy homeostasis. Growing evidence indicates that ghrelin is expressed and/or operates at different levels of hypothalamo?pituitary?ovary axis. However, the presence of ghrelin and its receptor in the bovine oocyte-cumulus complex (COC) has not been described until now. The aim of this study was to localize the mRNA of ghrelin and its active receptor (GHS-R1A) in the bovine COC. Oocyte-cumulus complex were aspirated from bovine ovaries, and matured in TCM-199 medium with FSH and 10 % FBS at 39 °C in 5% CO2 and saturated humidity for 24h. Medium was supplemented with increasing concentrations of ghrelin (0pM; 20pM; 40pM; 60pM). The expression of ghrelin and its receptor were determined with PCR. The results indicated that ghrelin and its active receptor (GHSR-1a) were expressed in immature COC, and in COCs matured with 0, 20, 40 and 60 pM of ghrelin. Although these findings alone do not prove the existence of a relationship between ghrelin and fertility, they are a mandatory first step toward understanding the role of ghrelin in metabolic regulation of fertility in bovine.