title: Effects of lamb age, hormone stimulation and response to hormone stimulation on the yield and in vitro developmental competence of prepubertal lamb oocytes.
abstract: Experiments were conducted to determine the effects of lamb age, hormone stimulation (Experiment 1) and response to stimulation (Experiment 2) on the in vitro production of embryos from prepubertal lambs aged 3-4 and 6-7 weeks of age. For 3-4-week-old lambs, hormone stimulation increased the number of follicles (29.9 +/- 15.3 v. 70.6 +/- 8.2), oocytes per ovary (18.3 +/- 6.3 v. 39.3 +/- 5.8) and oocyte development to the blastocyst stage (0/192 (0.0%) v. 115/661 (17.4%); P < 0.05). Lamb age (3-4 v. 6-7 weeks old) increased oocyte development to the blastocyst stage (115/661 (17.4%) v. 120/562 (21.4%) respectively). In Experiment 2, hormone-stimulated lambs (3-4 and 6-7 weeks old) were divided into low, medium or high responders based on the number of ovarian follicles (<20, 20-50 and >100 follicles per ovary respectively). The response to hormone stimulation did not affect oocyte recovery rate, but the number of oocytes suitable for culture was increased for high-responding 3-4-week-old lambs only (P < 0.05). Oocyte development to the blastocyst stage was not affected by response to stimulation for 3-4-week-old lambs (15.2-25.6%; P > 0.05), but was reduced for high (6.7%) compared with low (19.5%) and medium (30.9%) responding 6-7-week-old lambs (P < 0.05). These results demonstrate that the production of embryos from prepubertal lambs is increased by hormone stimulation and lamb age and the response to stimulation does not affect embryo production from 3-4-week-old lambs, although by 6-7 weeks of age a high response to stimulation reduces blastocyst formation.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Advanced Technologies in Animal Genetics and Reproduction (ReproGen), Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia. kmorton@vetsci.usyd.edu.au
authors.forename: Katherine M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Morton
authors.forename: Sally L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Catt
authors.forename: W M Chis
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Maxwell
authors.forename: Gareth
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Evans
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000502:physiology; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D006728:Hormones / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008423:Maternal Age; D009865:Oocytes / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D009929:Organ Size; D006080:Ovarian Follicle / Q000187:drug effects; D010053:Ovary / Q000254:growth & development; D010062:Ovulation Induction / Q000379:methods*; D012756:Sheep; D014599:Uterus / Q000254:growth & development
chemical_list: D006728:Hormones