Effect of quercetin on granulosa cells development from hierarchical follicles in chicken

ABSTRACT

1. The bioflavonoid quercetin is a biologically active component, but its functional regulation of granulosa cells (GCs) during chicken follicular development is little studied. To investigate the effect of quercetin on follicular development in laying hens, an in vitro study was conducted on granulosa cells from hierarchical follicles treated with quercetin.

2. The effect of quercetin on cell activity, proliferation and apoptosis of granulosa cells was detected by CCK-8, EdU and apoptosis assays. The effect on progesterone secretion from granulosa cells was investigated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) mRNA and oestrogen receptors (ERs), as well as the expression of steroid acute regulatory protein (StAR), cytochrome P450 cholesterol side chain cleavage enzyme (P450scc) and 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3β-HSD) mRNA during progesterone synthesis, were measured by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). PCNA, StAR and CYP11A1 protein expression levels were detected using Western blotting (WB).

3. The results showed that treatment with quercetin in granulosa cells significantly enhanced cell vitality and proliferation, reduced apoptosis and promoted the expression of gene and protein levels of PCNA. The levels of progesterone secretion increased significantly following quercetin treatment, as did the expression levels of StAR and CYP11A1 using the Western Blot (WB) method.

4. The mRNA expression levels of ERα were significantly upregulated in the 100 ng/ml and 1000 ng/ml quercetin-treated groups, while there was no significant difference in expression levels of ERβ mRNA.

KEYWORDS:

• Quercetin
• bioflavonoid
• granulosa cell
• progesterone
• oestrogen

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all the members of the department for their generous technical suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data included in this study are available upon request by contact with the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China [2021YFE0111100], the Key R&D Program of Guangxi [AB23026066], the Science and Technology Partnership Program [KY202201002], the earmarked fund for CARS-18 and CARS-40-K01, the Crop Germplasm Resources Protection Project of the Agriculture Ministry [111721301354052026] and National Infrastructure for Crop Germplasm Resources [NICGR-43].