We have reported that members of the bcl-2 gene family are expressed and gonadotropin regulated in ovarian granulosa cells during follicular maturation and atresia. Because Bcl-2, a protein that prevents apoptosis in several cell types, is reported to function as an antioxidant or free radical scavenger, the present studies were designed to investigate if oxidative stress plays a role in granulosa cell apoptosis during follicular atresia in the immature rat ovary. In the first series of experiments, the role of oxidative stress in the induction of granulosa cell apoptosis was directly tested using a defined in vitro follicle culture system. Healthy antral follicles obtained from equine CG (eCG)-primed immature (27 day old) rats were incubated in serum-free medium for 24 h in the absence or presence of FSH (100 ng/ml; a control for inhibiting apoptosis), superoxide dismutase (SOD; 10-1000 U/ml), ascorbic acid (0.01-1 mM; a free radical scavenger), N-acetyl-L-cysteine (25-100 mM; a free radical scavenger and stimulator of endogenous glutathione peroxidase activity), or catalase (10-1000 U/ml). Granulosa cells within follicles incubated in medium alone exhibited extensive apoptosis after 24 h of incubation, and this onset of apoptosis was blocked by treatment with FSH (29 +/- 4% of controls; P< 0.001, n = 3). Moreover, apoptosis in follicles was also inhibited by treatment with SOD (44 +/- 4% of controls at 1000 U/ml; P < 0.01, n = 3), ascorbic acid (55 +/- 9% of controls at 1 mM; P < 0.05, n = 3), N-acetyl-L-cysteine (24 +/- 7% of controls at 100 mM; P < 0.001, n = 3), or catalase (35 +/- 6% of controls at 1000 U/ml; P < 0.001, n = 3). In the second series of experiments, complementary DNAs corresponding to secreted (SEC-SOD), copper/zinc-containing (Cu/Zn-SOD), and manganese-containing (Mn-SOD) forms of rat SOD, rat seleno-cysteine glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx), and rat catalase were isolated and used to synthesize antisense RNA probes for Northern and slot blot analysis of changes in SOD, GSHPx, and catalase gene expression during follicular maturation. In vivo priming of 25-day-old female rats for 2 days with 10 IU eCG, which promoted antral follicular growth and survival, increased levels of messenger RNA encoding SEC-SOD (216 +/- 9% of saline-treated controls, P < 0.05, n = 3) and Mn-SOD (222 +/- 14% of saline-treated controls, P < 0.05, n = 3) vs. saline-treated controls.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Recent reports have demonstrated that prostaglandin F2alpha-induced generation of reactive oxygen species or their intermediates inhibits progesterone synthesis and may also serve as a trigger for apoptosis in the corpus luteum (CL). BCL-2, an inhibitor of apoptosis in a wide variety of cell types, has been reported to prevent oxidative stress-induced cell death. Thus, the present studies were conducted to determine whether levels of mRNA encoding BCL-2 and related members of this gene family (BAX and BCL-Xshort, which induce apoptosis; BCL-Xlong, a BCL-2 homologue that prevents apoptosis) differed in functional (Day 21 of pregnancy) versus regressed (Day 21 of the estrous cycle) CL in the bovine ovary. Levels of mRNAs encoding p53, a transcriptional regulator of the bcl-2 and bax genes, and interleukin-1beta-converting enzyme (ICE), a protein recently implicated in the induction of apoptosis whose expression may be enhanced by oxidative stress, were also assessed. Partial cDNA clones encoding bovine bax, bcl-x, p53, and Ice were isolated using the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique with total RNA prepared from functional or regressed CL. A bovine bcl-2 cDNA could not be isolated from luteal tissue RNA despite the use of several primer pairs for amplification. Total RNA was then extracted from functional or regressed CL and analyzed by Northern blot analysis. The occurrence of apoptosis in regressed CL, as evidenced by the presence of internucleosomal DNA cleavage, was associated with a significant increase in both bax and Ice mRNA levels as compared with levels of bax and Ice expression in functional CL (p < 0.05, n = 3). There were no significant differences in bcl-x or p53 mRNA levels in functional versus regressed CL. Analysis of bcl-x mRNA by RT-PCR revealed that the long form was the primary, if not only, mRNA expressed in functional and regressed bovine luteal tissue. On the basis of data that increased expression of bax is associated with, and may be required for, apoptosis in ovarian granulosa cells and germ cells, we propose that BAX may play a similar role in apoptosis induction during luteal regression. Moreover, the increased Ice mRNA levels in regressed CL provides the first evidence that the ICE family of death proteases may be involved in luteolysis.

Recent data support a role for apoptosis, under tight regulatory control by bcl-2, oxidative stress response, tumor suppressor, and CASP gene family members, in mediating granulosa cell demise during follicular atresia in the rodent and avian ovary. Herein we evaluated the occurrence of apoptosis in the human and baboon ovary relative to follicular health status, and analyzed expression of several cell death genes in these tissues.