Bacterial components compromise oocyte quality

A new publication from the Bromfield lab, lead by Rachel Piersanti, demonstrates that exposure of oocytes to bacterial LPS or the cytokine TNF-alpha changes the gene expression of growing oocytes. Many of the changes reported in this new paper reflect long term alterations to the oocyte which my be responsible for altering their developmental competence. We suspect that these changes to oocytes may be part of the reason that cows with uterine infection have reduced fertility.

The paper can be found here.