Transcriptional profiling of cumulus cells differentiation throughout oocyte competence acquisition in the murine ovarian follicles.. Mus musculus

Cumulus cells surrounding the oocyte were sampled at the following stages: developmentally incompetent or poorly competent prophase I oocytes (NC1 oocytes), developmentally competent prophase I oocytes (C1 oocytes), and developmentally competent metaphase II oocytes (C2 oocytes). NC1 samples were collected from immature, unexpanded cumulus-oocytes complexes (COC) from prepubertal (3-week-old) mice, C1 samples from immature, unexpanded cumulus-oocytes complexes (COC) from adult (8-week-old) and C2 samples from mature, expanded COCs obtained from the oviduct from 8-week-old mice after standard superovulation protocol. Overall design: Global transcriptional profiling was performed using cumulus cells collected from murine ovarian follicles during in vivo oocyte developmental competence acquisition. Cumulus cells were collected at 3 stages: early stage follicles (prophase I arrested oocytes, meiotically competent but developmentally incompetent, n=5), late stage follicles (prophase I arrested oocytes, meiotically competent and developmentally competent, n=5) and ovulatory follicles collected in vivo (metaphase II arrested oocytes, developmentally fully competent, n=5).