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First published online December 7, 2007

Development 135, 105e (2008)
© The Company of Biologists Limited
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In this issue

Egging on cell communication


Figure 1

The development of mammalian oocytes is supported by cumulus cells in the ovarian follicle. At the same time, oocytes actively regulate follicular development. John Eppig and co-workers now provide new insights into this bidirectional communication by reporting that oocyte-derived factors - specifically BMP15 and GDF9 - promote the biosynthesis of cholesterol in mouse cumulus cells (see p. 111). The researchers show that transcripts that encode cholesterol biosynthesis enzymes are downregulated in Bmp15-/- and Bmp15-/-/Gdf9+/- double mutant mouse cumulus cells before the preovulatory surge of luteinizing hormone, and are also downregulated in wild-type cumulus cells that are out of contact with oocytes. Oocytes, they report, express very low levels of these transcripts compared with cumulus cells and, in the absence of cumulus cells, produce very little cholesterol. Together, these results uncover an unexpected role for cumulus cells - the synthesis of cholesterol for the oocyte - and reveal that BMP15 regulates mouse follicular development before the luteinizing hormone surge.


Related articles in Development:

Oocyte regulation of metabolic cooperativity between mouse cumulus cells and oocytes: BMP15 and GDF9 control cholesterol biosynthesis in cumulus cells
You-Qiang Su, Koji Sugiura, Karen Wigglesworth, Marilyn J. O'Brien, Jason P. Affourtit, Stephanie A. Pangas, Martin M. Matzuk, and John J. Eppig
Development 2008 135: 111-121. [Abstract] [Full Text]  




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