In Vitro Culture of Mouse Preantral Follicle in Supplemented Medium with Bone Morphogenetic Protein 15 (BMP15)

BMD-15 is a member of the superfamily of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), which has a determinant role in fertility. This protein is essential for the development of ovarian follicles and acts mainly by binding to its receptor on the surface of granulosa cells.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of BMP-15 on in vitro ovarian follicle growth and embryo development.

In this study, preantral follicles were isolated mechanically from 12 days NMRI mouse ovaries, then the follicles were cultured in basic growth medium enriched by FBS, FSH, and ITS‏ and BMP-15-enriched for 12 days. During the culture, survival rate and follicular maturation, follicular diameter, level of estrogen, and progesterone secretion and embryo developmental rate were evaluated.

The results of this study showed that the percentage of antral follicles, maturation rate and hormone levels and the diameter of follicles was significantly higher in BMP-15 supplemented media in comparison to basic media. Embryo development was also higher at BMP-15 enriched group in comparison to the group of follicles, which were grown in the basic culture media.

The present study demonstrates that supplemented media with BMP-15 to the ovarian preantral follicle culture enhances the in vitro growth of follicle embryo development.