Coculture with good-quality COCs enhances the maturation and development rates of poor-quality COCs

In pigs, more than half of the recovered cumulus cell–oocyte complexes (COCs) have one or two layers of cumulus cells and are considered morphologically poor. If we could take full advantage of these poor-quality COCs, we could potentially improve the efficiency of in vitro embryo production. During...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Theriogenology 2016-02, Vol.85 (3), p.396-407
Main Authors: Lin, Tao, Oqani, Reza K., Lee, Jae Eun, Shin, Hyun Young, Jin, Dong Il
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Blastocyst - physiology
Coculture
Coculture Techniques - veterinary
Cumulus Cells - physiology
Cytoplasmic maturation
Embryo development
Embryonic Development - physiology
Female
Fertilization in Vitro - veterinary
Gene Expression
Glutathione - analysis
In Vitro Oocyte Maturation Techniques - methods
In Vitro Oocyte Maturation Techniques - veterinary
IVM
Nuclear maturation
Oocytes - growth & development
Oocytes - physiology
Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen - genetics
Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 - genetics
Sus scrofa
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Summary:In pigs, more than half of the recovered cumulus cell–oocyte complexes (COCs) have one or two layers of cumulus cells and are considered morphologically poor. If we could take full advantage of these poor-quality COCs, we could potentially improve the efficiency of in vitro embryo production. During IVM, although some maturation factors are transmitted bidirectionally between the oocyte and the cumulus cells of the same COC, transmission also occurs between different COCs. We hypothesized that morphologically poor COCs fail to undergo complete oocyte maturation because of their insufficient secretion of maturation factors. Here, we investigated whether coculture with morphologically good COCs (having three or more layers of cumulus cells) could improve the maturation and utilization rates of morphologically poor COCs. Our results revealed that the oocyte maturation rate, glutathione level, embryo development capacity, blastocyst quality, and cumulus cell gene expression levels of BCL-2 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen were similar in the coculture and good-quality groups and that these levels were all significantly higher than those in the poor-quality group. Our results strongly suggest that the coculture strategy greatly improved the utilization rate of morphologically poor COCs without reducing their capacity for maturation and subsequent development.
ISSN:0093-691X
1879-3231
DOI:10.1016/j.theriogenology.2015.09.001