Transcriptional profiling of cumulus cells differentiation throughout oocyte competence acquisition in the bovine ovarian follicles.. Bos taurus

Somatic 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 cumulus cells (CC) were sampled from immature calf oocytes, C1 samples from immature cow oocytes, and C2 samples from in vivo matured cow oocytes. Overall design: Global transcriptional profiling was performed using cumulus cells collected from bovine 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=6), late stage follicles (prophase I arrested oocytes, meiotically competent and developmentally competent, n=6) and ovulatory follicles collected by ovum pick-up (OPU) in vivo (metaphase II arrested oocytes, developmentally fully competent, n=5).