Dietary bioflavonoid quercetin modulates porcine ovarian granulosa cell functions in vitro

Abstract

Quercetin is a dietary bioflavonoid used widely as a food supplement and is generally recognized as safe. The aim of this in vitro study was to examine the steroid hormone (progesterone and 17- β estradiol) release, proliferation (PCNA and cyclin B1) and apoptosis (caspase 3 and p53) of porcine ovarian granulosa cells after the addition of quercetin at concentrations 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10 and 100 μmol L⁻¹. Progesterone release was stimulated at the concentration 10 μmol L⁻¹. Quercetin neither had any impact on 17-β estradiol secretion nor on the presence of PCNA. However, a significant enhancement of the occurrence of cyclin B1 was noted except for the lowest concentration 0.01 μmol L⁻¹. Quercetin did not have any influence on the number of granulosa cells containing caspase 3, but at the concentration 10 μmol L⁻¹ it inhibited p53 occurrence. Results confirm the safety of quercetin in porcine ovarian granulosa cell model and further suggest its possible concentration-dependent influence on ovarian functions through pathway that may involve progesterone, cyclin B1 and p53.

Keywords:

• Quercetin
• ovarian functions
• progesterone
• 17β-estradiol
• proliferation
• apoptosis

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sports of the Slovak Republic projects VEGA 1/0039/16, KEGA 011SPU-4/2016, APVV-16-0170, APVV- 15-0543, the excellent scientific team “Center of Animal Reproduction (CeRA)”, Tatra Bank Foundation 2018 and European Commission under project number 26220220180 for Building Research Centre “AgroBioTech”.