BMP-4 suppresses progesterone production by inhibiting histone H3 acetylation of StAR in bovine granulosa cells in vitro.

This study examined the molecular mechanism by which BMP-4 inhibits progesterone production and the expression of genes involved in steroidogenesis. Granulosa cells were cultured in medium with or without BMP-4 for 0-96 h. BMP-4 inhibited progesterone secretion in granulosa cells and suppressed the expression of steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) at the mRNA and protein levels, whereas BMP-4 did not affect the proliferation of granulosa cells.

Histone H3 acetylation of StAR and decrease in DAX-1 is involved in the luteinization of bovine granulosa cells during in vitro culture.

We investigated the expression of genes and transcription factors associated with steroidogenesis during the luteinization of granulosa cells isolated from bovine small follicles. Granulosa cells produced progesterone when cultivated in a culture medium including serum and attached to the substrate and began to display an elongated or fibroblastic aspect within 24 h of culture. We observed an increase in the number of granulosa cells at the same time.

Effect of local neutralization of basic fibroblast growth factor or vascular endothelial growth factor by a specific antibody on the development of the corpus luteum in the cow.

Active angiogenesis and progesterone (P) synthesis occur in parallel during development of the corpus luteum (CL). Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) are known to stimulate angiogenesis and P synthesis in vitro. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of bFGF or VEGF on the CL development in the cow by using a specific antibody against bFGF or VEGF.

Complete sequencing and characterization of 21,243 full-length human cDNAs.

As a base for human transcriptome and functional genomics, we created the "full-length long Japan" (FLJ) collection of sequenced human cDNAs. We determined the entire sequence of 21,243 selected clones and found that 14,490 cDNAs (10,897 clusters) were unique to the FLJ collection. About half of them (5,416) seemed to be protein-coding.