| First Author | Rubinstein E | Year | 2006 |
| Journal | Dev Biol | Volume | 290 |
| Issue | 2 | Pages | 351-8 |
| PubMed ID | 16380109 | Mgi Jnum | J:105963 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3617072 | Doi | 10.1016/j.ydbio.2005.11.031 |
| Citation | Rubinstein E, et al. (2006) Reduced fertility of female mice lacking CD81. Dev Biol 290(2):351-8 |
| abstractText | In somatic cells, the tetraspanins CD81 and CD9 associate with each other, with additional tetraspanins and with non-tetraspanin molecules to form proteolipidic complexes. Here we show that CD81 is expressed on the surface of oocytes where it associates with tetraspanin-enriched membrane structures. A major CD9 and CD81 partner, CD9P-1, is also expressed by oocytes. Deletion of CD81 gene in mice results in a 40% reduction of female fertility. In vitro insemination indicated that this infertility is due to a deficiency of oocytes to fuse with sperm. While the fertility of CD9-/- mice is severely but not completely impaired, double knock-out CD9-/- CD81-/- mice were completely infertile indicating that CD9 and CD81 play complementary roles in sperm-egg fusion. Finally, a fraction of CD9 was transferred from CD81-/- oocytes to sperm present in the perivitelline space indicating that the defect of fusion of CD81-/- oocytes does not result from an impaired initial gamete interaction. |
