Figure 2.

The expression of transcripts encoding proteins that mediate cumulus expansion do not increase in response to EGF in CCs from WT OOX/KO oocyte and KO OOX/WT oocyte groups. Oocytes (Oo) and OOX's were obtained from COCs of 12-week-old WT or Epab^−/− mice 44–48 hours after PMSG injection. The expression of Ptgs2 (A), Btc (B), and Tnfaip6 (C) in CCs after 16 hours of coculture in the presence or absence of 10-ng/mL EGF was assessed using qRT-PCR. Expression of target genes was normalized to β-actin levels, and results are shown as the fold change in gene expression between EGF stimulation (+) and no EGF stimulation (−). Data are presented as mean ± SEM from 3 independent experiments. *, significance between transcript levels with or without EGF treatment (P < .05). Significance was determined by t test.