Proteome Studies On Molecular Mechanisms Of Oocyte Development

Infertility is becoming a worldwide disease. As WHO (world health organization) predicts, in 21^st century, it will become the 3^rd leading disease after cancer and cardiovascular disease in the world. Infertility is not only involved in medicine and sociology, but also a hot research area. As the advancements of assistant reproductive technology the importance of obtaining and stocking high quality eggs has been fully recognized. More and more researchers are working on molecular mechanisms of oocyte development, but most of them focus on uni-channel model (single protein/gene function). As we know, the process of oocyte development works as a complicated regulation network. It includes tons of known or unknown proteins and even one protein has different status, for example, different modification, post-translation, translocation, structure formation and metabolism. So, uni-channel model is not good enough to elucidate the molecular mechanism of oocyte development. To overcome this, we have been trying to used proteomic multi-channel model to investigate the molecular mechanism of oocyte development. The term, Proteomics, came into being in the middle of 1990s. It isbecoming a hot field after the accomplishment of human genome project (accomplished in 2002). It describes the study of the complete set of proteins (proteome), which is expressed at a given time in a cell, tissue, organ or organism, to elucidate the relationship between the molecular or protein mechanism and the pattern of development or diseases. Two-dimensional electrophoresis is now a powerful and widely used method for the analysis of complex protein mixture extracted from cells, tissues, or other biological materials. Combined with Mass spectrometry, it is an efficient tool in proteome analysis.Proteomics, the study of the proteins inside cells, can provide valuable information about the whole expressed proteins spectrum of cells, tissues or organisms under normal physiological conditions. Based on two - dimensional electrophoresis, and it can also detect and compare the proteome changes under the pathological conditions. In our study, we tried to identify new proteins that might regulate oocyte meiotic maturation and follicular development using the high resolution two-dimensional (2-D) electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. In this research, we hoped to identify proteins that might regulate oocyte meiosis maturation/follicular development using the high resolution two-dimensional (2-D) electrophoresis and mass spectrometry.Part one Establishment of A two-dimensional electrophoresis reference map of mouse matureoocyte-cumulus complexThe ovulated mammalian oocyte is a large spherical cell arrested in second meiotic metaphase. Fertilization releases the oocyte from cell cycle arrest and initiates a succession of events that include incorporation of the male nucleus and the activation of embryonic development. Little is known of the molecular bases of these events. A major impediment is the dearth of information about the molecular composition of mammalian oocytes.[1]To set up the two-dimensional electrophoresis reference map and proteome library can elucidate the whole proteome composition in cells/tissues and make further analysis possible. From these reference map and library, we can get to know a bunch of proteome information, which was not available before, to screen out possible known/unknown proteins that involve in follicle growth/oocyte development, and meantime, provide a comprehensive reference to understand the molecular mechanism of follicle developmental diseases, such as PCOS, LUF and so on.Scientists have realized the importance of the ovarian follicle's somatic cells in nurturing oogenesis and delivering the oocyte to the oviduct by ovulation. Recent studies have revealed key roles of the oocyte in folliculogenesis and established that bidirectional communication between the oocyte and companion somatic cells is essential fordevelopment of an egg competent to undergo fertilization and embryogenesis. So, in our wo...