Zearalenone exposure affects mouse oocyte meiotic maturation and granulosa cell proliferation

Zearalenone (ZEN) is a metabolite of Fusarium and is a common contaminant of grains and foodstuffs. ZEN acts as a xenoestrogen and is considered to be cytotoxic, tissue toxic, and genotoxic, which causes abortions and stillbirths in humans and animals. Since estrogens affect oocyte maturation during meiosis, in this study we investigated the effects of ZEN on mouse oocyte meiotic maturation and granulosa cell proliferation. Our results showed that ZEN-treated oocyte maturation rates were decreased, which might be due to the disrupted cytoskeletons: (1) ZEN treatment resulted in significantly more oocytes with abnormal spindle morphologies; (2) actin filament expression and distribution were also disrupted after ZEN treatment, which was confirmed by the aberrant distribution of actin regulatory proteins. In addition, cortical granule-free domains (CGFDs) were disrupted after ZEN treatment, which indicated that ZEN may affect mouse oocyte fertilization capability. ZEN reduced mouse granulosa cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner as determined by MTT assay and TUNEL apoptosis analysis, which may be another cause for the decreased oocyte maturation. Thus, our results demonstrated that exposure to zearalenone affected oocyte meiotic maturation and granulosa cell proliferation in mouse.