Female Aging Alters Expression of Human Cumulus Cells Genes that Are Essential for Oocyte Quality
Figure 3
(a) TGF-β signaling pathway was deregulated in older CCs. The Ingenuity Pathway Analysis software was used to analyze impact of maternal age on TGF-β signaling. Downregulated genes in older CCs are shown in green and upregulated ones in red. Uncolored genes were not differentially expressed by our analysis but were integrated into the computationally generated networks on the basis of the evidence stored in the IPA knowledge memory indicating a relevance to this network. A plain line indicates direct interactions, a dashed line indicates indirect interactions, a line without arrowhead indicates binding only, a line finishing with a vertical line indicates inhibition, and a line with an arrowhead indicates “acts on.” (b) Schematic representation of genes upregulated in and and downregulated in CColder that are involved in cumulus-oocyte complex and oocyte development. Histograms show signal values of genes (INHA, CD200, and IL6ST) that are differentially expressed between age categories. Gene expression is measured by pan-genomic HG-U133 Plus 2.0 Affymetrix oligonucleotides microarrays, and the signal intensity for each gene is shown on the -axis as arbitrary units determined by the GCOS 1.2 software (Affymetrix).
