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Endocrine Abstracts (2021) 73 S13.3 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.73.S13.3

ECE2021 Symposia Symposium 13: TGF-β signalling in ovaries in women with PCOS (3 abstracts)

Cell-specific expression of TGF-β family members in follicles of women with and without PCOS

Jane Alrø Bøtkjær


Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, The Juliane Marie Centre for Women, Children and Reproduction, University Hospital of Copenhagen, Denmark


Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine disorder, affecting 5 – 10% of women of reproductive age, and is the major cause of anovulatory infertility. The mechanisms of reproductive dysfunction in PCOS remain to be clarified. Members of the TGF-β and IGF signalling pathway have been suggested to be involved in aberrant follicle development in women with PCOS. This talk will focus on previous and ongoing research that we carried out in Denmark and the United Kingdom, which imply differences in follicular TGF-β and IGF signalling between women with and without polycystic ovaries (PCO). The results in this talk are based on materials obtained from follicle fluids (FFs), granulosa cells (GCs), and fixed human small antral follicles (hSAFs) collected from women with and without PCO undergoing ovarian tissue cryopreservation as well as granulosa lutein cells (GLCs) collected from women undergoing IVF. Protein levels of inhibin-A and inhibin-B were significantly lower in FFs from women with PCO (hSAFs < 8 mm). AMH and AMHR2 gene expression and AMH FF-levels in hSAFs < 8 mm did not differ between the groups, however, FF-levels of AMH remained high in hSAFs > 8 mm from women with PCO. FF-levels of GDF9 were higher, whereas levels of BMP15 were reduced in PCO women (follicles > 6 mm). Gene expression levels of inhibitors (stanniocalcins) of the IGF signalling were downregulated in GLCs of women with PCOS. Further, FF-levels of PAPP-A (enhances IGF signalling) in hSAFs were reduced in women with PCO. AMH, PAPP-A, and stanniocalcin proteins were identified and localised by immunohistochemistry in ovaries of both PCO and non-PCO subjects. In conclusion, aberrant levels of TGF-β and IGF members in ovaries from women with PCO(S) highlight dysregulated growth factor signalling as a contributory mechanism in follicle arrest and anovulation in PCOS.

Volume 73

European Congress of Endocrinology 2021

Online
22 May 2021 - 26 May 2021

European Society of Endocrinology 

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