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. 2024;27(4):418-424.
doi: 10.22038/IJBMS.2024.70509.15328.

All-trans retinoic acid and fibroblast growth factor-2 enhance the fertility rate and embryo development in polycystic ovary syndrome mouse model

Auob Rustamzadeh  1   2 , Maryam Anjomshoa  3 , Narges Bahreini  4 , Shahram Darabi  2 , Mohammad Jafar Rezaie  5 , Shohreh Rezaei  5 , Mohammad Rahimi-Madiseh  6 , Fatemeh Deris  7 , Saeed Zamani  3
Affiliations

All-trans retinoic acid and fibroblast growth factor-2 enhance the fertility rate and embryo development in polycystic ovary syndrome mouse model

Auob Rustamzadeh et al. Iran J Basic Med Sci. 2024.

Abstract

Objectives: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) causes a developmental arrest of antral follicles and disrupts oocyte maturation. Retinoic acid (RA) and Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 (FGF2) are effective in follicle growth, thus their effects on histopathology and in vitro fertility of oocytes were investigated in PCOS-induced mice.

Materials and methods: Eighty female NMRI mice were randomly divided into 8 groups including 1-Normal mice, 2-PCOS mice without any treatment, 3-Normal mice treated with RA, 4-Normal mice treated with FGF2, 5-PCOS mice treated with RA, 6- PCOS mice treated with FGF2, 7- PCOS mice treated with RA and FGF2, and 8- Normal mice treated with RA and FGF2. Following PCOS induction, the mice were treated with intraperitoneal RA and FGF2 as a treatment. Then ovarian stimulation, for preparing the oocyte and embryo microscopic examinations was performed. After oocyte morphometry, through in vitro fertilization, the embryo formation was assessed. Data was analyzed by one-way ANOVA and Tukey tests.

Results: The results showed simultaneous injection of RA and FGF2 into PCOS-induced mice increases antral follicles and corpus luteum, but decreases cystic follicles. Simultaneous injection of these two substances into healthy mice increases the pre-antral follicles and corpus luteum. Simultaneous injection of RA and FGF2 increases the number of embryos in both control and intervention groups.

Conclusion: It can be concluded that RA and FGF2 increase the maturity of ovarian follicles, the number of two-celled embryos, and the number of grade-A embryos in mice with PCOS, which is more effective when these two substances are injected simultaneously.

Keywords: Embryo development; Fertility agents; Growth factor; In vitro oocyte maturation – techniques; Reproduction.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Effects of RA, FGF2, and both on cytoplasmic diameter, zona pellucida thickness, and perivitelline space diameter in study groups. The significant change in these parameters was observed in group 2 compared to group 1. When comparing group 7 to group 2, there was a significant increase in cytoplasmic diameter; in group 8, this increase was even greater. ZP thickness was significantly higher in groups 7 and 8 than in group 2, and perivitelline space diameter was significantly lower in groups 7 and 8 than in group 2
Figure 2
Figure 2
Morphological assessment of tissue sections prepared from ovaries in the studied groups focusing on follicular growth and stroma integrity
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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