Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 10 pp 9041—9065
Sigma-1 receptor is involved in diminished ovarian reserve possibly by influencing endoplasmic reticulum stress-mediated granulosa cells apoptosis
- 1 Reproductive Medical Center, People's Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China
- 2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China
- 3 School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Collaborative Innovation Center of New Drug Research and Safety Evaluation, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China
Received: January 7, 2020 Accepted: March 31, 2020 Published: May 14, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103166How to Cite
Copyright © 2020 Jiang et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Sigma non-opioid intracellular receptor 1 (sigma-1 receptor), a non-opioid transmembrane protein, is located on cellular mitochondrial membranes and endoplasmic reticulum. Current research has demonstrated that sigma-1 receptor is related to human degenerative diseases. This study is focused on the effects of sigma-1 receptor on the pathophysiological process of diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) and granulosa cells (GCs) apoptosis. Sigma-1 receptor concentration in follicular fluid (FF) and serum were negatively correlated with basal follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and positively correlated with anti-mullerian hormone (AMH), antral follicle count (AFC). Sigma-1 receptor reduction in GCs was accompanied by endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS)-mediated apoptosis in women with DOR. Plasmid transfection was used to establish SIGMAR1-overexpressed and SIGMAR1-knockdown human granulosa-like tumor (KGN) cell and thapsigargin (TG) was used to induce ERS KGN cells. We found that KGN cells treated with endogenous sigma-1 receptor ligand dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and sigma-1 receptor agonist PRE-084 showed similar biological effects to SIGMAR1-overexpressed KGN cells and opposite effects to SIGMAR1-knockdown KGN cells. DHEA may improve DOR patients' pregnancy outcomes by upregulating sigma-1 receptor and downregulating ERS-mediated apoptotic genes in GCs. Thus, sigma-1 receptor may be a potential ovarian reserve biomarker, and ligand-mediated sigma-1 receptor activation could be a future approach for DOR therapy.