IMR Press / FBS / Volume 9 / Issue 3 / DOI: 10.2741/S489

Frontiers in Bioscience-Scholar (FBS) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 1 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Review

Nitric oxide signaling during meiotic cell cycle regulation in mammalian oocytes

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1 Cell Physiology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221005, U.P., India
2 Department of Reproductive Biomedicine, National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Baba Gang Nath Marg, Munirka, New Delhi 110067, India

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

 

Front. Biosci. (Schol Ed) 2017, 9(3), 307–318; https://doi.org/10.2741/S489
Published: 1 June 2017
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reproductive biomedicine: from basics to translational outcome)
Abstract

Nitric oxide (NO) acts as a major signal molecules and modulate physiology of mammalian oocytes. Ovarian follicles generate large amount of NO through nitric oxide synthase (NOS) pathway to maintain diplotene arrest in preovulatory oocytes. Removal of oocytes from follicular microenvironment or follicular rupture during ovulation disrupt the flow of NO from granulosa cells to the oocyte that results a transient decrease of oocyte cytoplasmic NO level. Decreased NO level reduces cyclic nucleotides level by inactivating guanylyl cyclases directly or indirectly. The reduced cyclic nucleotides level modulate specific phosphorylation status of cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (Cdk1) and triggers cyclin B1 degradation. These changes result in maturation promoting factor (MPF) destabilization that finally triggers meiotic resumption from diplotene as well as metaphase-II (M-II) arrest in most of the mammalian species.

Keywords
Nitric oxide
Oocyte physiology
Cyclic nucleotides
MPF
Meiotic cell cycle
Review
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