Melatonin Improves the Quality of Inferior Bovine Oocytes and Promoted Their Subsequent IVF Embryo Development: Mechanisms and Results

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2017-11, Vol.22 (12), p.2059
• Main Authors: Yang, Minghui, Tao, Jingli, Chai, Menglong, Wu, Hao, Wang, Jing, Li, Guangdong, He, Changjiu, Xie, Lu, Ji, Pengyun, Dai, Yunping, Yang, Liguo, Liu, Guoshi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adenosine triphosphatase; Animals; Apoptosis; Bcl-2 protein; Bone morphogenetic proteins; Caspase; Caspase 3 - metabolism; Caspase-3; Cattle; Embryonic Development - drug effects; Female; Fertilization in Vitro - veterinary; Gene Expression; Glutathione - metabolism; in vitro embryo production; In vitro fertilization; inferior oocytes maturation; Maturation; Melatonin; Melatonin - pharmacology; Mitochondria; Normal distribution; Oocytes; Oocytes - drug effects; Oxidative Stress; Reactive oxygen species; Reactive Oxygen Species - metabolism; Signal Transduction; Up-Regulation
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules22122059

The inferior oocytes (IOs), which are not suitable for embryo development, occupy roughly one-third or more of the collected immature bovine oocytes. The IOs are usually discarded from the in vitro bovine embryo production process. Improving the quality of the inferior oocytes (IOs) and make them available in in vitro embryo production would have important biological, as well as commercial, value. This study was designed to investigate whether melatonin could improve the quality of IOs and make them usable in the in vitro maturation (IVM) and subsequent (in vitro fertilization) IVF embryo development. The results indicated that: the maturation rate of IOs and their subsequent IVF embryo developments were impaired compared to cumulus-oocyte complexes and melatonin treatment significantly improved the quality of IOs, as well as their IVF and embryo developments. The potential mechanisms are that: (1) melatonin reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) and enhanced glutathione (GSH) levels in the IOs, thereby protecting them from oxidative stress; (2) melatonin improved mitochondrial normal distribution and function to increase ATP level in IOs; and (3) melatonin upregulated the expression of , , , , , and , which are critical genes for oocyte maturation and embryo development and downregulated apoptotic gene expression of caspase-3.