Microarray evidence that 8-cell human embryos express some hormone family members including oxytocin.

OBJECTIVE: This study is to discover hormone pathways active in early cleaving human embryos.

METHODS: A list of 152 hormones and receptors were compiled to query the microarray database of mRNAs in 8-cell human embryos, two lines of human embryonic stem cells plus human fibroblasts before and after induced pluripotency.

RESULTS: Over half of the 152 hormones and receptors were silent on the arrays of all cell types, and more were detected at high or moderate levels on the 8-cell arrays than on the pluripotent cell or fibroblast arrays. Eight hormone family genes were uniquely detected at least 22-fold higher on the 8-cell arrays than the stem cell arrays: AVPI1, CCK, CORT, FSTL4, GIP, GPHA2, OXT, and PPY suggesting novel roles for these proteins in early development. Oxytocin was detected by pilot immunoassay in culture media collected from Day 3 embryos. Robust detection of CRHR1 and EPOR suggests the 8-cell embryo may be responsive to maternal CRH and EPO. The over-expression of POMC and GHITM suggests POMP peptide products may have undiscovered roles in early development and GHITM may contribute to mitochondrial remodeling. Under-detected on the 8-cell arrays at least tenfold were two key enzymes in steroid biosynthesis, DHCR24 and FDPS.

CONCLUSIONS: The 8-cell human embryo may be secreting oxytocin, which could stimulate its own progress down the fallopian tube as well as play a role in early neural precursor development. The 8-cell embryo does not synthesize reproductive steroid hormones. As previously reported for growth factor families, the early embryo over-expresses more hormones than hormone receptors.