Cholesterol and egg activation

The high-density lipoprotein (HDL) receptor SR-BI controls the structure and fate of plasma HDL. The SR-BI knockout (KO) females are infertile, apparently due to their abnormal, cholesterol-enriched HDL particles. In this thesis, my colleagues and I examined the growth and meiotic progression of SR-BI KO oocytes and found that they underwent normal germinal vesicle breakdown; however, SR-BI KO eggs, which had accumulated excess cholesterol in vivo, spontaneously activated; they escaped metaphase II (MII) arrest and progressed to pronuclear, metaphase III and anaphase/telophase III stages. Eggs from fertile, wild-type mice were activated when loaded in vitro with excess cholesterol using a cholesterol/methyl-[beta]-cyclodextrin complex, phenocopying SR-BI KO oocytes.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Wang, Li

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Monty Krieger.

• Biology.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122709

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122709