Integrated Analysis of Granulosa Cells and Extracellular Vesicles Reveals Predictive Biomarkers of Oocyte Maturation in the Southern White Rhinoceros

An essential step towards technological advancement and ARTs’ success is identifying optimal in vitro culture conditions to mature oocytes, carry out fertilization, and culture embryos for future transfer. The role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and granulosa cells (GC) in follicular development, oocyte maturation, and fertilization has been extensively studied for decades in human and domestic species models.

This study aimed to characterize transcriptomic differences in GC and evaluate the communication between EVs in the follicular fluid and GC miRNA cargo between oocytes that matured (PB) and those that did not mature (NoPB) after in vitro culture. Overall, in GC, 1,117 transcripts (annotated and unannotated) were differentially expressed between groups. In the miRNA from the GC, 11 were differentially expressed between groups, all higher in the PB group.