title: Fertilizability and developmental capacity of individually cultured bovine oocytes.
abstract: Culture of single oocytes throughout in vitro maturation (IVM), fertilization (IVF) and culture (IVC) provides detailed information on maturity, fertilizability and developmental capacity of individual bovine oocytes and embryos. In the present study, effects of sperm concentration (Experiment 1), microdrop size (Experiment 2), and the addition of hypotaurine (HT) or glutathione (GSH; Experiment 3) during IVF were investigated. In Experiment 4, in vitro maturity and developmental capacity of bovine oocytes cultured for IVM in a medium supplemented with fetal calf serum (FCS), bovine serum albumin (BSA) or polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) during IVM were investigated. In Experiments 1 to 3, the percentages of normal (2 pronuclei with a spermtail) and polyspermic fertilization in singly cultured oocytes were similar to those of group IVF culture (5 oocytes/drop). The addition of GSH during single oocyte IVF significantly increased the proportion of normal fertilization and decreased the polyspermic fertilization compared with addition of HT or of the control. The rates of mature oocytes (62.4 and 67.7%) and blastocyst development (12.9 and 15.2%) for single oocyte IVM cultures (Experiment 4) were also similar compared with the group culture; PVA supplementation significantly increased the matured oocyte rate, but decreased blastocyst development significantly (7.1%) as compared with FCS (19.5%) or BSA (15.6%). These results indicate that a single oocyte culture system throughout in vitro production of bovine embryos provides similar maturity, fertilizability and developmental capacity to oocytes cultured in groups.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Animal Genetics and Reproduction, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fukui
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kondo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mizushima
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle / Q000196:embryology / Q000502:physiology*; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary; D003470:Culture Media; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D005978:Glutathione / Q000494:pharmacology; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009865:Oocytes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D011142:Polyvinyl Alcohol / Q000494:pharmacology; D011247:Pregnancy; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine / Q000494:pharmacology; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000502:physiology; D013654:Taurine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D013654:Taurine; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine; C003949:hypotaurine; D011142:Polyvinyl Alcohol; D005978:Glutathione