Association of Atorvastatin with GDF9 and BMP15 Expression and in vitro Maturation of Mouse Oocytes

Atorvastatin (atv) is one of the hyperlipidemia treatment drugs with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, growth differentiation factor 9 (gdf-9) and bone morphogenetic protein 15 (bmp-15) are two potent regulator factors of ovulation. this study investigated the effect of atorvastatin on gdf-9 and bmp-15 expression and explores its relationship with oocyte maturation in mice. a total of 200 oocytes from 40 mice were collected and divided into two groups (n=100 in each group), including the control group and the atorvastatin group (receiving 2 mg/kg atorvastatin). after oocyte culture in dmem medium, gdf-9, and bmp-15 expression were evaluated by real-time pcr. the rate of oocyte maturation was evaluated using fluorescent microscope scanning. data were analyzed using an anova test. gdf-9 and bmp-15 expression in control and atorvastatin groups were 2.3 and 4.8 (p≤0.05) and 1.2 and 3.4 fold respectively (p≤0.001). the oocyte maturation rate in the atorvastatin and control groups was 82% and 76%, respectively (p>0.05). according to our findings, low-dose atorvastatin caused overexpression of gdf-9 and bmp-15 in mice oocytes and it could improve the quality and maturation of mouse oocytes.