EXPRESSION OF SVIP AND P97/VCP IN BOVINE OVARY CORTICAL STRIPS CULTURED WITH IN VITRO PACLITAXEL

The 97-kDa valosin-containing protein (p97/VCP), a conserved family of molecular chaperones that control several cellular processes, is a member of the AAA (diverse cellular activity-associated ATPases) family. SVIP, a small VCP-interacting protein, is a protein involved in endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated protein degradation and regulates its function by binding to p97/VCP. Studies have shown that SVIP interacts with p97/VCP to regulate autophagy. The tumor suppressor role of SVIP has been described and its expression is associated with increased ER stress and inhibition of cancer growth. Little information is available in the literature on the potential localization sites of p97/VCP, and SVIP in the ovary. A study in rat ovaries showed that SVIP and p97/VCP are mainly located in the nuclear and cytoplasmic regions of granulosa and theca cells in multilayered primary follicles. In our study, we aimed to demonstrate the expression of SVIP and p97/VCP in bovine ovaries and to investigate the effect of paclitaxel (PTX), a chemotherapy drug actively used in the clinic, on these expressions. Two groups were created with cortical strips taken from bovine ovaries and cultured: 1. Control group: Group in which only culture medium was used 2. PTX group (0.1 ug/ml paclitaxel). Tissues were cultured for 6 days by changing the medium every two days and then fixed with Bouin's fixative. Routine paraffin tissue embedding was performed after fixation. Standard immunohistochemistry procedures and analyses were performed to examine SVIP and p97/VCP expression in the control group and PTX. This study is the first to demonstrate SVIP and p97/VCP expression in bovine ovaries. Consistent with studies in the literature, we also observed nuclear and cytoplasmic immunoexpression of SVIP and p97/VCP in primary and primordial follicles. In our study, we observed that Paclitaxel significantly decreased SVIP expression while increasing p97/VCP expression.