Initiation of meiotic maturation in Xenopus laevis oocytes by lanthanum

PROGESTERONE can induce true maturation of isolated amphibian oocytes in vitro 1 . It has been found recently that the ionophore A23187, in the presence of high magnesium or calcium concentrations, can also promote meiosis in vitro 2 , and it has been observed that 0.5–1 mM pro-pranolol and some rel...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1976-07, Vol.262 (5566), p.289-290
Main Authors: SCHORDERET, MICHEL, BAULIEU, ETIENNE-EMILE, SCHORDERET-SLATKINE, SABINE
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Calcium - physiology
Egg Proteins - biosynthesis
Female
Humanities and Social Sciences
Lanthanum - pharmacology
letter
Meiosis - drug effects
multidisciplinary
Oocytes - drug effects
Oocytes - metabolism
Ovum - drug effects
Progesterone - pharmacology
Science
Xenopus
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Summary:PROGESTERONE can induce true maturation of isolated amphibian oocytes in vitro 1 . It has been found recently that the ionophore A23187, in the presence of high magnesium or calcium concentrations, can also promote meiosis in vitro 2 , and it has been observed that 0.5–1 mM pro-pranolol and some related compounds, are potent inducers of maturational events in Xenopus laevis oocytes 3 . This last result suggests that displacement of membrane calcium might be involved in maturation, because this is known to occur in other systems treated with high concentrations of propranolol 4 . We have therefore studied the action of La 3+ , since this ion is expected to act specifically at the superficial plasma membrane calcium sites 5 . We report here that maturation is induced by La 3+ , indicating strongly that calcium ion movements have a role in the initiation of oocyte maturation.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/262289a0