Human Reproduction, Vol. 8, No. 10, pp. 1564-1569, 1993
© 1993 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
research-article |
Physiology: Human follicular fluid maturity and endothelial cell mitogenesis
1The Ulster, North Down and Ards Hospitals Trust, The Ulster Hospital Dundonald, Belfast BT16 ORH, UK 2The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Monash University, Monash Medical Centre 246 Clayton Road, Clayton 3168, Victoria, Australia
Correspondence: 3To whom correspondence should be addressed
Follicular fluid, of varying maturity, (day 5–16 of cycle) was collected from the largest Graafian follicle of each of 22 ovulatory patients during laparoscopic procedures. Three samples were blood-stained and discarded. The mitogenic potential of each sample was determined using bovine aortic endothelial cells in the CellTiter 96TM Non-Radioactive Cell Proliferation/Cytotoxicity Assay system. Intra- and inter-plate coefficients of variation were <9%. The follicular fluid samples induced cell doubling times which varied from 
12–24 h and final cell numbers which, in the individual wells, ranged from 782–30 900 (starting number 2000/well). Follicular fluid total protein content was unrelated to the mitogenic potential, (R2 = 0%). Serum oestradiol was negatively correlated with the mitogenic potential (R2 = 26%). No correlation was found with day of the menstrual cycle (R2 = 4.3%), maximum follicular diameter (R2 = 1.8%), or serum concentration of progesterone (R2 = 0.7%), luteinizing hormone (LH) (R2 = 1.5%) or follicle stimulating hormone (R2 = 0.1%). Five subjects were in ‘early’ and six in ‘mid’-follicular phase, six were in ‘early’ and two in ‘late’ LH surge. There was no difference in the mitogenic response between these four groups by one-way analysis of variance (F = 0.21; P = 0.89). It is concluded that the mitogenic potential of human follicular fluid is not related to Graafian follicle maturity or, more particularly, to the LH surge.
Key words: endothelial cell/human follicular fluid/mitogenesis