Oocyte and cumulus cell cooperativity and metabolic plasticity under the direction of oocyte paracrine factors
Dulama Richani, Anne Poljak, Baily Wang, Saabah B. Mahbub, Joanna Biazik, Jared M. Campbell, Abbas Habibalahi, William A. Stocker, Maria B. Marinova, Brett Nixon, Sonia Bustamante, David A. Skerrett‐Byrne, Craig A. Harrison, Ewa M. Goldys, Robert B. Gilchrist
Abstract
Oocyte-secreted factors (OSFs) promote oocyte and cumulus cell cooperativity by altering the molecular composition of both cell types. OSFs downregulate protein catabolic processes and upregulate processes associated with DNA binding, translation, and ribosome assembly in oocytes. In cumulus cells, OSFs alter mitochondrial number, morphology, and function, and enhance metabolic plasticity by upregulating anabolic pathways. Hence, the oocyte via OSFs, instructs cumulus cells to increase metabolic processes on its behalf, thereby subduing oocyte metabolism.