• The Korean Journal of Zoology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 1984

In order to investigate the alkaline phosphtase activities in the mouse oocytes in matuation and preimplantation embryos in developing in culture, the enzyme activities were measured by means of biochemical method. The in vitro effect of levamisole which is known as an inhibitor of the lakaline phosphatase was also observed on the oocyte in maturation and the embryos in early embryogenesis. The results obtained were as follows: The enzyme activity was not detected in the embryos unitl the stage of 4-cell, but it appeared first in the 4-cell embryos and the level of the activity was steady through up to the blastocyst. Levamisole inhibited the alkaline phosphatase activity in the blastocyst, and the activity decreased by almost 70% at 10 mM and 50% at 1 mM as compared with the control. In addition, levamisole inhibited completely the formation of polar body by the oocytes. and induced degeneration of the preimplantation embryos at the dose of 0.5 mM or higher.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.113-118
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• 2003

Follicular fluid(FF) of mammalian Graafian follicles contains various kinds of proteins and proteinases that are believed to play important roles during follicular growth oocyte maturation and ovulation of mature oocytes. Previous studies of human FF(hFF) demonstrated the presence of many serine/threonine proteinases and matrix metalloproteinases such as gelatinases, however, little is known about the caseinases. Present study was aimed to examine the presence and the property of caseinolytic enzyme in hFF. Using casein zymographic method, it was found that hFF, human adult serum and cord serum exhibited one intense 80 kDa and another weak 78 kDa bands having caseinolytic activity. When inhibitors were added to the zymographic substrate buffer, caseinolytic activity of both 80 kDa and 78 kDa proteins were inhibited by othylenediarnine tetraacetic acid(EDTA) or soybean trypsin inhibitor(SBTI), but not by E-64, phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride(PMSF) or 1,10-phenanthroline. Thus both enzymes appear to belong to a family of trypsin-like enzyme. Addition of EDTA to the zymographic substrate buffer almost abolished the caseinolytic activity of both enzymes. However, further addition of a divalent metal ion such as CaC $l_2$, MgC $l_2$, MnC $l_2$ or ZnC $l_2$ to the same buffer fully restored the enzyme activity at 5 mM concentration despite the presence of EDTA. Based upon these observations, 80 kDa and 78 kDa caseinolytic enzymes are present in human follicular fluid and they appear to be trypsin-like enzymes of which caseinolytic activity needs the presence of $Ca^{++}$, aM $g^{++}$, M $n^{++}$ or Z $n^{++}$././././.