Oviductal extracellular vesicles (oviductosomes, OVS) are conserved in humans: murine OVS play a pivotal role in sperm capacitation and fertility

AbstractSTUDY QUESTIONSAre extracellular vesicles (EVs) in the murine oviduct (oviductosomes, OVS) conserved in humans and do they play a role in the fertility ofPmca4−/ − females?SUMMARY ANSWEROVS and their fertility-modulating proteins are conserved in humans, arise via the apocrine pathway, and mediate a compensatory upregulation of PMCA1 (plasma membrane Ca2+-ATPase 1) inPmca4−/ − female mice during proestrus/estrus, to account for their fertility.WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADYRecently murine OVS were identified and shown during proestrus/estrus to express elevated levels of PMCA4 which they can deliver to sperm. PMCA4 is the major Ca2+ efflux pump in murine sperm andPmca4 deletion leads to loss of sperm motility and male infertility as there is no compensatory upregulation of the remaining Ca2+ pump, PMCA1. Of the four family members of PMCAs (PMCA1 –4), PMCA1 and PMCA4 are ubiquitous, and to date there have been no reports of one isoform being upregulated to compensate for another in any organ/tissue. SincePmca4−/ − females are fertile, despite the abundant expression of PMCA4 in wild-type (WT) OVS, we propose that OVS serve a role of packaging and delivering to sperm elevated levels of PMCA1 inPmca4−/ − during proestrus/estrus to compensate for PMCA4 ’s absence.STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATIONFallopian tubes from pre-menopausal women undergoing hysterectomy were used to study EVs in the luminal fluid. Oviducts from sexually mature WT mice were sectioned after pe...
Source: Molecular Human Reproduction - Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research