Fig. 4.

EGF-like peptide and its sheddase related mRNA gene expression in FSH or AREG stimulated/unstimulated cumulus cells under standard IVM conditions, with or without pre-IVM. Expression of AREG (A), EREG (B), BTC (C) and ADAM17 (D) in cumulus cells of COCs cultured for 6 h without (control) or with FSH or AREG in standard IVM, with or without cAMP-modulated 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.