Fig. 3.

Cumulus expansion and related mRNA gene expression in FSH or AREG-stimulated/unstimulated cumulus cells under standard IVM conditions, with or without pre-IVM. Cumulus expansion index (A) of COCs was examined after 22 h of oocyte maturation. All values represent mean ± SEM of five replicate experiments. Expression of HAS2 (B), TNFIP6 (C) and PTGS2 (D) in cumulus cells of COCs cultured for 6 h without (control) or with FSH or AREG in standard IVM, with or without pre-IVM. Gene expression was normalized to expression of the housekeeping gene RPL19. The control in the absence of both FSH and AREG was assigned a value of one and all other points are expressed relative to this point. Values represent mean ± SEM of five replicates. Bars with no common superscript letters indicate significant differences between treatments at P < 0.05.