106 EXPRESSION PATTERNS OF PROTEIN KINASE A SUBUNITS DURING MEIOTIC MATURATION OF PORCINE OOCYTES

Abstract

Many extracellular ligands activate adenylyl cyclase and then alter the intracellular concentrations of the second messenger, cAMP. High intracellular concentrations of cAMP activate cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA), which regulates the meiotic arrest of oocytes at the germinal vesicle (GV) stage. In this study, we investigated the expression patterns of PKA subunits in porcine oocytes during meiotic maturation. Porcine oocytes were matured in the NCSU-23 medium supplemented with 10% (v/v) porcine follicular fluid, 10 ng mL^–1 of EGF, 25 µm β-mercaptoethanol, 0.57 mm cysteine, 10 IU mL^–1 of pregant mare serum gonadotropin, 10 IU mL^–1 of hCG, 1 mm dbcAMP for 22 h and further cultured without dbcAMP and hormone for 22 h. All experiments were repeated more than 3 times. All data were analyzed by using Duncan's test of ANOVA by Statistical Analysis System (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). We found that the expression of type I and type II regulatory subunits (RI and RII) of PKA were higher in the GV stage than those of metaphase II stage porcine oocytes. In addition, their expressions were dynamically changed from the metaphase I to metaphase II stage. The expression levels of PKA regulatory subunits type I and type II were evaluated byWestern blot analysis by using specific antibodies such as anti-PKAc, anti-PKARIα, anti-PKARIIα, and anti-PKARIIβ in porcine GV and metaphase II oocytes (n = 25). To confirm the relationship between PKA and cell cycle regulators such as MPF or MAPK during meiosis, the expression of maturation-promoting factor or mitogen-activated protein kinase were examined by Western blot with anti-cdc2 or anti-ERK1/2. The expressions of the RI and RII subunits of PKA were decreased, whereas the expression of maturation-promoting factor (cdc2) or mitogen-activated protein kinase (ERK1/2) were increased in metaphase II stage oocytes. In conclusion, our findings indicate that the dynamic change of PKA subunits plays an important role not only in cAMP/PKA signaling pathway but also in the regulation of meiotic progression beyond the metaphase II stage in porcine oocytes.