Caspase-2 involvement during ionizing radiation-induced oocyte death in the mouse ovary

In mammals, the pool of primordial follicles at birth is determinant for female fertility. Exposure to IR during oogonia proliferation and the diplotene stages of ovarian development induced the virtual disappearance of primordial follicles in the postnatal ovary, while half the follicular reserve remained present after irradiation during the zygotene/pachytene stages. This sensitivity difference was correlated with the level of caspase-2 expression evaluated by immunohistochemistry. At the diplotene stage, Western blot and caspase activity analysis revealed that caspase-2 was activated 2 h after irradiation and a significant increase in the number of oocytes expressing cleaved caspase-9 and -3 occurred 6 h after treatment. Inhibition of caspase-2 activity prevented the cleavage of caspase-9 and partially prevented the loss of oocytes in response to irradiation. Taken together, our results show that caspase-2-dependent activation of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway is one of the mechanisms involved in the genotoxic stress-induced depletion of the primordial follicle pool.