Dynamics of Cytokine-like Activity in the Hyperplasic Ovary of Ex-fissiparous Planarians.

The origin of infertility in the hyperplasic ovary of ex-fissiparous planarians remains poorly understood. In a previous study we demonstrated that a complex process of early autophagy, followed by apoptotic processes, occurs in the hyperplasic ovary of the freshwater planarian Dugesia arabica. The present study aimed to investigate whether the mRNA expression levels of selected mRNA-like genes are altered in the hyperplasic ovary of the ex-fissiparous freshwater planarian D. arabica compared to the normal ovary. Using human cytokine-specific primers including interleukin-1 (IL-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), we have successfully amplified by real-time polymerase chain reaction some transcripts that could be similar to those amplified in human. The transcript levels of the human-like transcript (IL-1-like and TNF-α-like) were significantly higher, 4.89- and 3.41-fold, respectively, in the hyperplasic ovary compared to the normal ovary (P < 0.05). However, although IL-6-like levels were higher in the hyperplasic ovary than the normal ovary (2.57-fold), this difference was not significant (P > 0.05). Immunohistochemical labeling supported the quantitative real-time PCR, showing that, like their respective mRNA expression levels, IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-α-like proteins are more highly expressed in the hyperplasic ovary than in the normal ovary.