A Study on the Expression of Bad Gene during the Corpus Luteum Regression of Rat

Yoo, B K; Kim, H C; Kang, S K

Abstract

Much progress has been made in recent years towards a greater understanding of the complex series of apoptotic events and suggested that the degeneration of ovarian corpus luteum is apoptotic cell death. Recent reports have demonstrated that PGF2alpha induces generation of reactive oxygen species or their intermediates inhibits progesterone synthesis and may also serve as a trigger for apoptosis in the corpus luteum. So we have preliminarily characterized changes in the expression of the bad gene in corpus luteum. DNA fragments corresponding to bad coding sequence were cloned from rat ovary for this study. Also RNase protection assay (RPA) and 4, 6, -diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining analysis were used to check the steady-state bad mRNA levels in total RNA and apoptotic assay of histological sections prepared from corpus luteum. We have found that the rate of apoptotic cells was increased during the progress of corpus luteum life cycle at hCG induced or pregnant rat. Also PGF2alpha treatment increased the expression of bad gene in corpus luteum. This indicates that corpus luteum regression may accelerate apoptosis by a direct or indirect induction of the bad gene expressions. These data first reveal that PGF2alpha plays an important roles via bad gene expression in the regulation of rat corpus luteum regression.