Expression of epidermal growth factor receptor in the goat cumulus-oocyte complex.

It has been previously reported that epidermal growth factor (EGF) influences meiotic maturation and development competence of oocytes in various mammalian species. The present study was undertaken to analyze the expression of the gene encoding the EGF-receptor (EGF-R) in the goat cumulus-oocyte complex during meiotic competence acquisition. Expression of EGF-R mRNA was evaluated by PCR on reverse transcribed mRNA from follicular cells and oocytes, using EGF-R specific primers designed from human cDNA.