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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Reproduction
Volume 16 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1522269
This article is part of the Research Topic Androgen Receptors in Male and Female Reproduction View all 4 articles
Transcriptomic analysis of the effects exerted by curcumin on dihydrotestosterone-induced ovarian granulosa cells
Provisionally accepted- 1 Jiaxing University, Jiaxing, Zhejiang, China
- 2 Zhejiang Rongjun Hospital, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, China
- 3 Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
Purpose Hyperandrogenism is a leading cause of developmental retardation in ovarian granulosa cells. Previous studies have indicated that curcumin significantly improves follicular dysplasia, a characteristic of the polycystic ovary syndrome. Our purpose was to explore the signaling pathways which enable curcumin to protect the development of hyperandrogen-induced granulosa cells. Methods Ovarian granulosa cells treated with or without curcumin at different dihydrotestosterone (DHT) levels, were screened for cell viability, reactive oxygen species production, and apoptosis. RNA sequencing (transcriptome sequencing) was used to determine global gene expression in DHTinduced granulosa cells treated with curcumin. Results 24 hours of combined curcumin and DHT treatment inhibited granulosa cell viability in a dose-dependent manner.Curcumin upregulated estrogen synthesis-related enzymes, downregulated lipid metabolism-related genes and the glucuronic acid process, inhibited androgen receptor (AR) activity, significantly improved cell viability, and corrected granulosa cell development. Gene set enrichment and genome transcriptome pathway analyses revealed the potential role played by curcumin in protecting granulosa cell development.High androgen levels may disrupt steroid hormone synthesis and lipid metabolism pathways associated with granulosa cell development, thereby activating AR and inhibiting estrogen biosynthesis. Curcumin restores granulosa cell development by correcting abnormal steroid gene expression and disordered lipid fatty acid metabolism.
Keywords: Conceptualization, YZ, methodology, DC, QY, resources, data curation, YZ, SS, original draft writing preparation, JZ, LC, funding acquisition, hyperandrogen, granulosa cells, polycystic ovary syndrome, curcumin, RNA sequencing
Received: 04 Nov 2024; Accepted: 17 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Yu, Sheng, Cai, Zheng and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yaling Zhang, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
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