Effect Of Astaxanthin On Meiotic Competence And Gene Expression Of Growing Porcine Oocyte Derived From Early Antral Follicle

Abstract

There is a limited amount of preantral follicles inside the mammalian ovary, culture of oocytes derived from preantral follicles (1-1.5 mm) is a promising technique as it takes advantage of the enormous early-antral follicle source for culture and could be applied for further research in Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) like helping for ovarian cancer or infertile patient. Thus, Scientists have been working on culturing models of this potential fertility reserve in ART to help infertile women but the low number of embryos that develop from small eggs cultured in vitro presents a challenge for them. Therefore, a novel culture model for small eggs from preantral follicles (1-1.5mm) is potential. In this study, I investigated the effect of Astaxanthin (Ax) on development of Astaxanthin (Ax), the most potent antioxidants found in nature on the development of meiotic competence in early antral follicles (1-1.5 mm) following IVG and IVM. Oocytes- cumulus granulosa complex (OCGC) were collected and cultured in an IVG medium supplemented with three different concentrations of astaxanthin respectively,0μM, 0.25μM, and 0.5μM for 48 hours for IVG. The in vitro growth oocytes were subsequently cultured for 42 hours for IVM to evaluate the capacity of the oocyte undergoing meiotic competence. The results demonstrated that oocytes cultured in medium with 0.5μM and 0.25μM Ax x (81.00% and 79.33%, respectively) reached considerably the maturation stage than those cultured in 0μM Astaxanthin medium (39.33%). Moreover, to ensure the optimal quality of matured oocytes, the expression of BMP15 and GDF9 was examined by Real-time qPCR. Gathering all results, it is concluded that the addition of 0.5 μM Ax to IVG medium improves the quality of porcine in vitro growth oocytes by exerting antioxidant impacts on these oocytes. This novel culture medium can contribute to improving the in vitro culture of human oocytes.