KIRREL is differentially expressed in adipose tissue from 'fertil+ and 'fertil- cows: in vitro role in ovary?

We have previously shown that dairy cows carrying the ‘fertil–’ haplotype for one quantitative trait locus affecting female fertility located on the bovine chromosome three (QTL-F-Fert-BTA3) have a significantly lower conception rate and body weight after calving than cows carrying the ‘fertil+’ haplotype. Here, we compared by Tiling Array the expression of genes included in the QTL-F-Fert-BTA3 in ‘fertil+’ and ‘fertil–’ adipose tissue one week after calving when plasma non-esterified fatty acid concentrations were greater in ‘fertil–’ animals. We observed that thirty-one genes were overexpressed whereas twelve were under-expressed in ‘fertil+’ as compared to ‘fertil–’ cows (P < 0.05). By quantitative PCR and immunoblot we confirmed that adipose tissue KIRREL mRNA and protein were significantly greater expressed in ‘fertil+’ than in ‘fertil–’. KIRREL mRNA is abundant in bovine kidney, adipose tissue, pituitary, and ovary and detectable in hypothalamus and mammary gland. Its expression (mRNA and protein) is greater in kidney of ‘fertil+’ than ‘fertil–’ cows (P < 0.05). KIRREL (mRNA and protein) is also present in the different ovarian cells with a greater expression in granulosa cells of ‘fertil+’ than ‘fertil–’ cows. In cultured granulosa cells, recombinant KIRREL halved ster...

Source: Reproduction - January 11, 2018 Category: Reproduction Medicine Authors: Coyral-Castel, S., Rame, C., Cognie, J., Lecardonnel, J., Marthey, S., Esquerre, D., Hennequet-Antier, C., Elis, S., Fritz, S., Boussaha, M., Jaffrezic, F., Dupont, J. Tags: Research Source Type: research