title: Inhibitory actions of Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) on ovarian primordial follicle assembly.
abstract: The current study was designed to investigate the actions of Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) on primordial follicle assembly. Ovarian primordial follicles develop from the breakdown of oocyte nests during fetal development for the human and immediately after birth in rodents. AMH was found to inhibit primordial follicle assembly and decrease the initial primordial follicle pool size in a rat ovarian organ culture. The AMH expression was found to be primarily in the stromal tissue of the ovaries at this period of development, suggesting a stromal-epithelial cell interaction for primordial follicle assembly. AMH was found to promote alterations in the ovarian transcriptome during primordial follicle assembly with over 200 genes with altered expression. A gene network was identified suggesting a potential central role for the Fgf2/Nudt6 antisense transcript in the follicle assembly process. A number of signal transduction pathways are regulated by AMH actions on the ovarian transcriptome, in particular the transforming growth factor-beta (TGFß) signaling process. AMH is the first hormone/protein shown to have an inhibitory action on primordial follicle assembly. Due to the critical role of the primordial follicle pool size for female reproduction, elucidation of factors, such as AMH, that regulate the assembly process will provide insights into potential therapeutics to manipulate the pool size and female reproduction.
authors.affiliation: Center for Reproductive Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Eric E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schindler
authors.forename: Marina I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Savenkova
authors.forename: Michael K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Skinner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D054304:Anti-Mullerian Hormone / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002452:Cell Count; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D009865:Oocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D006080:Ovarian Follicle / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism*; D011374:Progesterone / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; D011374:Progesterone; D054304:Anti-Mullerian Hormone