Serum Heat Shock Protein 70 Concentration in Relation to Polycystic Ovary Syndrome in a Non-Obese Chinese Population. Gao H 2013 et al.
BACKGROUND
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) represents the most common cause of anovulatory infertility and affects 6-15% of women of reproductive age. However, the underlying etiology is still poorly understood. In this study, we attempted to examine the association between circulating heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) concentrations and PCOS in a non-obese Chinese population.
METHODS AND RESULTS
Human peripheral blood from 52 patients with PCOS and 57 healthy controls, matched for age and BMI, were analyzed. Women with PCOS were found to have significantly higher fasting insulin (FI) levels, as well as Insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR) (P < 0.05). Identically, markers of oxidative stress (malondialdehyde (MDA), 8-Hydroxy-desoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), Nitric oxide (NO)) and inflammation (tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a), C-reactive protein (CRP)) were markedly increased when compared to controls (P < 0.05). Elevated serum Hsp70 was positively correlated with IR, oxidative stress and inflammation in PCOS, even after adjustment for age, BMI and gynecologic inflammation (GI). The receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis yielded notably different discriminative value for PCOS, with or without an addition of Hsp70 (areas under the curves were 0.884 (95% CI 0.822-0.946) vs. 0.822 (95% CI 0.744-0.900); P for difference = 0.015).
CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE
Increased serum Hsp70 levels are associated with the combination of IR, oxidative stress and low-grade chronic inflammation in PCOS individuals, which provides supportive evidence that Hsp70 plays a key role in the pathogenesis of PCOS. More consequent studies were warranted to confirm the clinical utility of circulating Hsp70, especially in diagnosis and prognosis of PCOS and its long-term health cost.
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Follicle stages
Comment
Assessment of the risk of blastomere biopsy during pre-implantation genetic diagnosis in a mouse model: reducing female ovary function with an increase in age by proteomics method. Yu Y 2013 et al.
Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is important for screening genetic and chromosome mutations in embryos so that the efficiency of assisted reproductive treatment can be increased and birth defects can be decreased; however, some studies have reported a risk from this technology, as well as other assisted reproductive technologies. We have developed a PGD mouse model to assess the potential effects of blastomere biopsy on the fertility of female mice at different ages. We showed that female fertility was decreased in PGD the mouse model with an increase in age. Moreover, the ovarian weight, serum hormone levels, and the number of primordial, primary, pre-antral, and antral stage follicles were also decreased in the middle-aged PGD mouse model. To elucidate the underlying molecular mechanism, ovarian tissues from adult PGD and control mice underwent proteomics analysis. Of the 23 differentially-expressed proteins which were screened for in both groups, 3 proteins (PSMB8, ALDH1A1, and HSPA4) were selected and identified by Western blotting and quantitative RT-PCR methods, which showed the 3 proteins to regulate 12 cellular pathways. Furthermore, these 3 proteins were shown to be located in ovarian tissues and the dynamic changes of expression profiling in middle-aged PGD and control mice were demonstrated. The present study showed that blastomere biopsy technology impairs fertility when mice are middle-aged, which possibly resulted in abnormal expression profiling of PSMB8, ALDH1A1, and HSPA4 proteins. Thus, additional studies should be performed to assess the overall risk of blastomere biopsies during PGD procedures.
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