INTRODUCTION
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is one of most common and complicated
endocrine and metabolic disorder, affecting about 6%-20% women of
reproductive age1.In addition to reproductive
dysfunction, PCOS can also manifest abnormal glycolipid metabolism while
the insulin resistance (IR) is an independent risk factor for several
metabolic abnormalities, including dyslipidemia, impaired glucose
tolerance, cardiovascular disease and metabolic
syndrome(MetS)2-4. The process of follicular
development is crucial for reproduction. It needs bi-directional
signaling between oocytes and granulosa cells. For patients with PCOS,
the associated endocrine and glycolipid metabolic disorder can disrupt
normal signal transmission, and then leads to the block of follicular
growing, a decrease of high-quality embryos and even reduce the rate of
transplantation 5,6.
ANGPTL4 is a member of angiopoietin-like proteins (Angptls) family and
is known as a regulator of lipid and glucose metabolism. It is proposed
to inhibit activity of the enzyme lipoprotein lipase (LPL), which
hydrolyzes triglyceride(TG) core of TG-rich lipoproteins, chylomicrons
and very low-density lipoproteins (VLDL), and regulates their
distribution to peripheral tissues7-9. A research
reported that, there was a significant increase of ANGPTL4 level in
serum of patients with PCOS compared with healthy subjects10. Evidence has shown that ANGPTL4 level in serum may
positively correlate with PCOS.
Research on ANGPTL4 expression in ovarian granulosa cells (GCs) is still
deleted. Therefore, our study aims to investigate the relative
expression levels of ANGPTL4 in ovarian granulosa cells in PCOS and
examined their possible associations with the glucose and lipid
metabolism.