Abstract
In mammals, ovulation is a multistep physiological process that includes preovulatory follicle growth, oocyte meiotic maturation, cumulus-oocyte complex (COC) expansion, follicle rupture, and luteinization. TGF-β signaling pathway has multiple functions in mammalian ovary, as its complexity in ovarian function has been demonstrated by mouse models with knockouts of TGF-β receptors and SMADs. We describe the protocol that we use to study functions of TGF-β signaling pathway in follicle development and ovulation. Because total knockout of TGF-β pathway components often causes embryonic lethality, which prevents further investigation of these genes in ovarian functions, people have generated ovarian cell type-specific knockout mouse strains for TGF-β signaling pathway genes. These mouse models are also described.
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Acknowledgements
The research described was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2011CB944504, 2012CB944403), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81172473), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (R2100145), and Basic Scientific Research Funding of Zhejiang University (2011QN81001).
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Yu, C., Zhou, JJ., Fan, HY. (2016). Studying the Functions of TGF-β Signaling in the Ovary. In: Feng, XH., Xu, P., Lin, X. (eds) TGF-β Signaling. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1344. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2966-5_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2966-5_19
Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-2965-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-2966-5
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