All-trans retinoic acid and fibroblast growth factor-۲ enhance the fertility rate and embryo development in polycystic ovary syndrome mouse model

Objective(s): Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) causes a developmental arrest of antral follicles and disrupts oocyte maturation. Retinoic acid (RA) and Fibroblast Growth Factor-۲ (FGF۲) are effective in follicle growth, thus their effects on histopathology and in vitro fertility of oocytes were investigated in PCOS-induced mice.Materials and Methods: Eighty female NMRI mice were randomly divided into ۸ groups including ۱-Normal mice, ۲-PCOS mice without any treatment, ۳-Normal mice treated with RA, ۴-Normal mice treated with FGF۲, ۵-PCOS mice treated with RA, ۶- PCOS mice treated with FGF۲, ۷- PCOS mice treated with RA and FGF۲, and ۸- Normal mice treated with RA and FGF۲. Following PCOS induction, the mice were treated with intraperitoneal RA and FGF۲ as a treatment. Then ovarian stimulation, for preparing the oocyte and embryo microscopic examinations was performed. After oocyte morphometry, through in vitro fertilization, the embryo formation was assessed. Data was analyzed by one-way ANOVA and Tukey tests.Results: The results showed simultaneous injection of RA and FGF۲ into PCOS-induced mice increases antral follicles and corpus luteum, but decreases cystic follicles. Simultaneous injection of these two substances into healthy mice increases the pre-antral follicles and corpus luteum. Simultaneous injection of RA and FGF۲ increases the number of embryos in both control and intervention groups. Conclusion: It can be concluded that RA and FGF۲ increase the maturity of ovarian follicles, the number of two-celled embryos, and the number of grade-A embryos in mice with PCOS, which is more effective when these two substances are injected simultaneously.