Human granulosa cells function as innate immune cells executing an inflammatory reaction during ovulation: a microarray analysis

Single-cell reconstruction of follicular remodeling in the human adult ovary

“…It is well accepted that the events that lead to ovulation (including remodeling of extracellular matrix, chemotaxis, microcirculatory vasomotion, formation of the oocyte–cumulus complex) are regulated by a cytokine-mediated inflammatory response orchestrated by lymphocytes, granulocytes, and macrophages 32 . Moreover, GC present in ovulatory follicles seem to have properties of innate immune cells 33 . However, the mechanisms that regulate follicular remodeling and ultimately regression are much less well understood 5,11,34,35 .…”

Expression and Contribution of NLRP3 Inflammasome During the Follicular Development Induced by PMSG

“…Pregnant mare serum gonadotropin is mainly similar to FSH and widely used for superovulation (Ma et al, 1997; Tarín et al, 2002; Nie et al, 2018; Kim et al, 2019), the present study therefore, utilized PMSG to trigger the follicular development and the following ovulation for examining the expression changed of NLRP3 inflammasomes during the follicular development and clarifying the possible role of NLRP3 inflammasomes during the following ovulation. It’s well-known that inflammation is involved in the ovulatory process (Gonzalez et al, 2018; Duffy et al, 2019; Poulsen et al, 2019; Snider and Wood, 2019), but the detailed mechanism regulating the crosstalk between the inflammatory and ovulatory processes still remains unclear. Therefore, the contribution of the inflammatory processes to the ovulation in mammalian ovaries recently attracted more and more attention (Gonzalez et al, 2018; Duffy et al, 2019; Poulsen et al, 2019; Snider and Wood, 2019).…”

“…It’s well-known that inflammation is involved in the ovulatory process (Gonzalez et al, 2018; Duffy et al, 2019; Poulsen et al, 2019; Snider and Wood, 2019), but the detailed mechanism regulating the crosstalk between the inflammatory and ovulatory processes still remains unclear. Therefore, the contribution of the inflammatory processes to the ovulation in mammalian ovaries recently attracted more and more attention (Gonzalez et al, 2018; Duffy et al, 2019; Poulsen et al, 2019; Snider and Wood, 2019). Duffy et al (2019) Found the parallel of the ovulatory and inflammatory processes with many common features, ovarian granulosa cells executed an inflammatory reaction during the ovulation (Poulsen et al, 2019), obesity reduced ovarian oocyte quality with inflammation (Snider and Wood, 2019), inflammatory markers in the follicular fluid were correlated with body mass index (Gonzalez et al, 2018), and so on.…”

“…Therefore, the contribution of the inflammatory processes to the ovulation in mammalian ovaries recently attracted more and more attention (Gonzalez et al, 2018; Duffy et al, 2019; Poulsen et al, 2019; Snider and Wood, 2019). Duffy et al (2019) Found the parallel of the ovulatory and inflammatory processes with many common features, ovarian granulosa cells executed an inflammatory reaction during the ovulation (Poulsen et al, 2019), obesity reduced ovarian oocyte quality with inflammation (Snider and Wood, 2019), inflammatory markers in the follicular fluid were correlated with body mass index (Gonzalez et al, 2018), and so on. Given the important role of NLRP3 inflammasomes in the inflammatory responses (Zhang et al, 2015; Zhu et al, 2016), the present study examined expressions of NLRP3 inflammasomes during the follicular development induced by PMSG and found NLRP3 and ASC expressions significantly increased after PMSG-52 h treatment, which were consistent with the dramatic increases of caspase-1 activity and IL-1β production, suggesting NLRP3 inflammasomes were activated before the ovulation and involved in the following ovulation.…”

Contribution of the immune system to follicle differentiation, ovulation and early corpus luteum formation

“…Indeed, the gene expression profile of bovine peri-ovulatory granulosacells is enriched with factors involved in acute inflammation and immunosurveillance (Walsh et al, 2012b). The expression of these factors by the granulosa cells may activate the ovarian innate immune system (Spanel-Borowski, 2011), as evidenced by the detection of acute phase proteins, defensins, interleukins and prostaglandins (PGs) in the pre-ovulatory follicular tissue and fluid (Takeda, 2004;Angelucci et al, 2006;Poulsen et al, 2019). Based on findings in rats, it is proposed that PGs and leukotrienes stimulate the synthesis and activity of collagenases which act to promote the degradation of the follicle matrix (Murdoch and Gottsch, 2003).…”