1: Development. 2007 Jul;134(14):2593-603. Epub 2007 Jun 6. Erratum in: Development. 2008 Feb;135(4):786. Oocyte-derived BMP15 and FGFs cooperate to promote glycolysis in cumulus cells. Sugiura K, Su YQ, Diaz FJ, Pangas SA, Sharma S, Wigglesworth K, O'Brien MJ, Matzuk MM, Shimasaki S, Eppig JJ. The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME 04609, USA. Mammalian oocytes are deficient in their ability to carry out glycolysis. Therefore, the products of glycolysis that are necessary for oocyte development are provided to oocytes by companion cumulus cells. Mouse oocytes secrete paracrine factors that promote glycolysis in cumulus cells. The objective of this study was to identify paracrine factors secreted by oocytes that promote glycolysis and expression of mRNA encoding the glycolytic enzymes PFKP and LDHA. Candidates included growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9), bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP15) and fibroblast growth factors (FGFs). Bmp15-/- and Gdf9+/- Bmp15-/- (double mutant, DM) cumulus cells exhibited reduced levels of both glycolysis and Pfkp and Ldha mRNA, and mutant oocytes were deficient in promoting glycolysis and expression of Pfkp and Ldha mRNA in cumulus cells of wild-type (WT) mice. Alone, neither recombinant BMP15, GDF9 nor FGF8 promoted glycolysis and expression of Pfkp and Ldha mRNA in WT cumulus cells. Co-treatment with BMP15 and FGF8 promoted glycolysis and increased expression of Pfkp and Ldha mRNA in WT cumulus cells to the same levels as WT oocytes; however, the combinations of BMP15/GDF9 or GDF9/FGF8 did not. Furthermore, SU5402, an FGF receptor-dependent protein kinase inhibitor, inhibited Pfkp and Ldha expression in cumulus cells promoted by paracrine oocyte factors. Therefore, oocyte-derived BMP15 and FGFs cooperate to promote glycolysis in cumulus cells. PMID: 17553902 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] Related Links Synergistic roles of BMP15 and GDF9 in the development and function of the oocyte-cumulus cell complex in mice: genetic evidence for an oocyte-granulosa cell regulatory loop. [Dev Biol. 2004] PMID:15531364 Oocyte regulation of metabolic cooperativity between mouse cumulus cells and oocytes: BMP15 and GDF9 control cholesterol biosynthesis in cumulus cells. [Development. 2008] PMID:18045843 Oocyte bone morphogenetic protein 15, but not growth differentiation factor 9, is increased during gonadotropin-induced follicular development in the immature mouse and is associated with cumulus oophorus expansion. [Biol Reprod. 2006] PMID:16943361 RNA interference evidence that growth differentiation factor-9 mediates oocyte regulation of cumulus expansion in mice. [Biol Reprod. 2005] PMID:15385414 Oocytes prevent cumulus cell apoptosis by maintaining a morphogenic paracrine gradient of bone morphogenetic proteins. [J Cell Sci. 2005] PMID:16263764