Journal
PLOS ONE
Volume 14, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217495
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Science and Technology Support Project of Science and Technology Bureau of Sichuan Province [2016FZ0061]
- Sichuan Province Science and Technology Support Project [2016-16ZC1659]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Chronic inflammation is a typical characteristic of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), in which, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha plays an important role. We investigated whether anti-TNF-alpha therapy can alleviate the core phenotypes of PCOS. In pubertal female Wistar rats, release pellets of letrozole (LET) were administered continuously for 90 days to induce PCOS-like phenotypes, followed by treatment with etanercept (ETA), a TNF-alpha inhibitor. ETA significantly inhibited increases in body weight and androgen, TNF-alpha, and MCP-1 levels, excessive recruitment of lipid droplets, altered levels of pre-adipose differentiation markers, and abnormal development of follicles. In addition, TNF-alpha and testosterone (T) levels in the rat sera were significantly positively correlated. Further experiments were performed to investigate the relationship between TNF-alpha and androgen. Persistent exposure of the RAW 264.7 cell line to low doses of testosterone significantly enhanced TNF-alpha expression and activated the NF-KB signaling pathway, which were blocked by ETA. Furthermore, treatment with TNF-alpha promoted the production of testosterone in KGN granulosa cells by reducing CYP19A1 expression, whereas ETA treatment blocked this process. In conclusion, anti-TNF-alpha therapy with ETA may be an efficient method to alleviate PCOS, whose underlying mechanism may be associated with its ability to reduce excessive androgen levels.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available