Role of insulin-like growth factors in preantral follicle development and function in normal and polycystic ovaries. (360G-Wellcome-078570_Z_05_Z)

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) has profound implications for both reproductive and metabolic health but many aspects of its aetiology and pathogenesis remain poorly understood. Anovulation in PCOS is characterised byarrested antral follicle development but we have recently demonstrated abnormalities in the very earliest stages of preantral follicle development. Our preliminary data indicate that (1) key components of the intraovarian IGF system are expressed in human preantral follicles, that (2) IGF-I effects bothgrowth and survival or early preantral follicles in culture and that (3) thereare differences between normal and polycystic ovaries in expression and actionof IGFs. The specific aims of this project are: (1) to study the expression ofIGFs, their receptors and binding proteins in human preantral follicles; (2) to study the action of IGFs on recruitment, growth, survival and differentiation of human preantral follicles, using cultures of ovarian cortical tissue; (3) to compare expression and action of IGFs in preantral follicles from normal and polycystic ovaries. In complementary studies (4) we