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  2. Cumulus cells orchestrate oocyte maturation via actin polymerization and vitamin B6 metabolism regulation: Highlights from multi-omics analysis in sheep vitrified cumulus-oocyte complex

Cumulus cells orchestrate oocyte maturation via actin polymerization and vitamin B6 metabolism regulation: Highlights from multi-omics analysis in sheep vitrified cumulus-oocyte complex

  • Int J Biol Macromol. 2025 Aug;320(Pt 4):146219. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.146219.
Jiachen Bai 1 Guiping Hai 2 Yucheng Liu 3 Jun Li 4 Aiju Liu 5 Zhenliang Zhang 3 Longfei Wang 1 Jingjing Wang 3 Yanhua Guo 3 Pengcheng Wan 6 Xiangwei Fu 7
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of the MARA, National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Beijing Key Laboratory for Animal Genetic Improvement, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China; State Key Laboratory of Sheep Genetic Improvement and Healthy Breeding, Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural and Reclamation Science, Shihezi 832000, China.
  • 2 Key Laboratory of the Animal Production, Product Quality and Security, Ministry of Education, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, Jilin 130118, China.
  • 3 State Key Laboratory of Sheep Genetic Improvement and Healthy Breeding, Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural and Reclamation Science, Shihezi 832000, China.
  • 4 Department of Reproductive Medicine, Reproductive Medical Center, The First Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050000, China.
  • 5 State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of the MARA, National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Beijing Key Laboratory for Animal Genetic Improvement, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
  • 6 State Key Laboratory of Sheep Genetic Improvement and Healthy Breeding, Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural and Reclamation Science, Shihezi 832000, China. Electronic address: wanpc@hotmail.com.
  • 7 State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of the MARA, National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Beijing Key Laboratory for Animal Genetic Improvement, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China; State Key Laboratory of Sheep Genetic Improvement and Healthy Breeding, Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural and Reclamation Science, Shihezi 832000, China. Electronic address: xiangweifu@126.com.
Abstract

It is well known that cumulus cells play a crucial role in meiotic resumption and oocyte maturation. However, the role of cumulus cells in oocytes development under vitrification stress remains elusive. Therefore, we sought to delineate the molecular mechanism underlying the interaction of cumulus cells and oocytes developmental potential under stress conditions by integration analysis (Pathway co-enrichment, Protein network clustering, and Pearson correlation analysis) based on 4D Label free proteome, Ultra-Low RNA-seq and untargeted metabolome techniques. "Regulation of actin cytoskeleton" and "vitamin B6 metabolism" were identified as the most enriched and impacted pathways. Moreover, our results showed that the absence of cumulus cells significantly reduced oocyte survival, maturation, and normal F-actin distribution rate after IVM. Notably, Narciclasine (an agent functions in promoting actin polymerization) significantly improved the polar body extrusion (PBE) rate and reduced cortical tension defects rate of vitrified oocytes after in vitro maturation (IVM). What's more, we discovered that vitrification significantly reduced mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) level in cumulus cells and ATP content in oocytes. Whereas, Pyridoxal 5'-phosphate monohydrate (the active form of vitamin B6) improved ATP level and cytoplasmic maturation of vitrified oocytes after IVM. In conclusion, our results demonstrated the value of multi-omics approach in deciphering the role of cumulus cells during ovine oocyte growth under stress conditions, and revealed that promoting actin polymerization and vitamin B6 metabolism contributes to the improvement of vitrified ovine oocytes quality.

Keywords

Actin polymerization; Cumulus-oocytes complexes; Multi-omics; Sheep; Vitamin B(6); Vitrification.

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