Nitric Oxide-Induced flpoptosis in tiuman Granulosa Cells

Introduction: recent evidence suggests that nitric oxide (no) actsas an important factor in a variety of physiological and pathologicalprocesses, including reproductive function. the purpose of thepresent study was to investigate whether no might significantlyinduce any apoptotic changes in cultured human granulosa cells.material and methods: the granulosa cells (gc) were obtainedfrom women taking part in an in vitro fertilization (ivf) program. after48h culture, 1mm detalno was added to the culture medium andthen the apoptosis of granulosa cells was evaluated by in situterminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dutp nick endlabeling (tunel) immediately and after one hour culture.results: nitric oxide significantly increased apoptotic indexafter one hour in human granulosa cell culture (p(less than)o.024), but itdid not significantly affect the controls and the group whichapoptotic index was calculated immediately after no donoraddition.conclusions: these results suggest that, apoptosis of humangranulosa cells is mediated by detalno, and this effect is directlyproportional to the duration of the exposure.