‘Free’ inhibin α subunit is expressed by bovine ovarian theca cells and its knockdown suppresses androgen production

Inhibins are ovarian dimeric glycoprotein hormones that suppress pituitary FSH production. They are synthesised by follicular granulosa cells as α plus βA/βB subunits (encoded by INHA, INHBA, INHBB, respectively). Inhibin concentrations are high in follicular fluid (FF) which is also abundant in ‘free’ α subunit, presumed to be of granulosal origin, but its role(s) remains obscure. Here, we report the unexpected finding that bovine theca cells show abundant INHA expression and ‘free’ inhibin α production. Thus, theca cells may contribute significantly to the inhibin α content of FF and peripheral blood. In vitro, knockdown of thecal INHA inhibited INSL3 and CYP17A1 expression and androgen production while INSL3 knockdown reduced INHA and inhibin α secretion. These findings suggest a positive role of thecal inhibin α on androgen production. However, exogenous inhibin α did not raise androgen production. We hypothesised that inhibin α may modulate the opposing effects of BMP and inhibin on androgen production. However, this was not supported experimentally. Furthermore, neither circulating nor intrafollicular androgen concentrations differed between control and inhibin α-immunized heifers, casting further doubt on thecal inhibin α subunit having a significant role in modulating androgen production. Role(s), if any, played by thecal inhibin α remain elusive

The European Roma: An Unsettled Right to Memory

In the heartland of Europe there has been a critical amnesia: a ‘blind spot in the consciousness of Europe’ (Grass, 2011, p. 25). European politics of justice is unsettled by the disarticulated memory of slavery. This is not the memory of the transatlantic slave trade of African people, about which books have been written, films made, and exhibitions created. Neither is it the memory of the slavery of Jewish people during the genocide of the Nazi Holocaust, about which many films have been made, museums, and memorials created, and about which I, too, have written. Nor does this simply relate to the silencing of what has been termed the ‘slavery, occupation, subjugation and Stalinist terror’ felt by Eastern Europe at the end ofWorldWar II (Vike-Freiberga, 2005). I mean rrobia, the suppressed history and memories of hundreds of thousands of Roma and their enslavement in Europe predominantly by Romanian states, which continued until desrrobireja – the period of abolition in the middle of the nineteenth century. This has had a profound impact on European politics of justice in terms of the development of the public media, how European Roma were treated in the Nazi Holocaust and Cold War of the twentieth century, how Roma continue to be misrepresented in the media, and how they continue to experience some of the worst discrimination of any minority group within the European Union (EU). After 155 years, a campaign by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to have some public recognition of this landmark in Roma history will result in a monument created by Roma sculptor Marian Petre in Bucharest. This chapter considers this within the context of wider erasures and struggles for a Roma right to memory