• 한국수정란이식학회지
• /
• 제25권3호
• /
• pp.171-177
• /
• 2010

Plasminogen activators (PAs) are serine proteases that convert plasminogen to plasmin. The PA/plasmin system has been associated with a number of physiological processes such as fibrinolysis, ovulation and fertilization. Although correlations have been reported between reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oocyte maturation, the relationship between PA activity and ROS is unknown. The present study was undertaken to determine the effects of cumulus cells on PA activity in matured porcine oocytes under xanthine (X)-xanthine oxidase (XO) system. When oocytes were matured under the X-XO system, the proportion of oocytes remaining GV stage was higher (p<0.05) in oocytes without cumulus cells. The incidence of degenerated oocytes was higher (p<0.05) in the X+XO ($11.1{\pm}6.1$ and $21.6{\pm}3.4%$) than in the control group ($2.9{\pm}1.8$ and $4.0{\pm}1.6%$). The proportion of TUNEL-positive oocytes and activity of caspase-3 were higher (p<0.05) in cumulus-free oocytes and oocytes exposed to ROS. Tissue-type plasminogen activator-plasminogen activator inhibitor (tPA-PAI) and tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) activity were detected in oocytes that were separated from cumulus-oocytes complexs (COCs) at 44 h of maturation culture, and only tPA was produced in oocytes that were denuded before the onset of maturation culture. On the other hand, the activities of PA were increased (p<0.05) when oocytes were cultured under the X-XO system. The higher activity of tPA was observed in denuded oocytes (DOs) underwent apoptotic changes by oxidative stress. In COCs, however, tPA-PAI as well as tPA activity was detected and apoptotic changes such as DNA cleavage or caspase-3 activation were not observed. These results suggest that tP A may be relevant to apoptotic cell death in porcine oocytes by oxidative stress.

• 한국수정란이식학회지
• /
• 제15권3호
• /
• pp.295-302
• /
• 2000

The objective of this study was to compare different superovulation treatments using PMSG or PG600$^{ }$ and to determine the optimal time of oocyte recovery after hCG administration. A total of 90 prepubertal Yorkshire x Landrace gilts crossed with Duroc, 6~7 months old and 100~120 kg of body weight, were used. PMSG (1,500 IU/head) or 5~7.5 ml of PG600$^{ }$(400 IU of PMSG and 200 IU of hCG) were administrated subcutaneously, and then 1,000 IU of hCG were administered intramuscularly at 72 hours after PMSG or PG600$^{ }$ injection. At carious time of 44, 46, 48 and 50 hours after hCG injection, superovulated gilts were slaughtered in a local abattoir. Ovaries together with oviducts were excised from the body immediately after slaughtered and transported to laboratory in 39$^{\circ}C$ saline. Ovaries were examined fur the number of corpus hemorrhagicum and unovulated follicles present in the surface of ovary. The unovulated follicles were categorized into small (1~3 mm in diameter) and large (4~8 mm) groups according to their diameter. Oocytes were recovered by flushing both oviducts with micropipette tip (1~100 $\mu$l) attached to a 10-ml disposable syringe. The number of CH on ovary and recovered oocytes at 46, 48 and 50 hr after hCG injection in PG600$^{ }$ treated groups were significantly higher than the other group. Group of phCG 50 hr among PMSG treated groups had a greater number of CH and recovered oocytes(P<0.05). The number of CH on ovary and recovered oocytes at 50 hr after hCG injection in 1$\frac{1}{2}$ vial(7.5 ml) of PG600$^{ }$ treated groups was significantly higher than 1 vial(5 ml) of PG600$^{ }$ treated group(P<0.05). In conclusions, considering a number of corpus hemorrhagicum and recovered oocytes after superovulation in gilts, effective time of oocyte recovery by treatment with PMSG and hCG was post-hCG 50 hr and with PG600$^{ }$ plus hCG was post-hCG 46, 48 and 50 hr. Also, admini-stration of 1$\frac{1}{2}$ vial(7.5 ml) of PG600$^{ }$ treated group had a great number of CH and recovered oocytes.covered oocytes.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
• /
• 제30권2호
• /
• pp.135-141
• /
• 2006

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of cumulus cells and porcine follicular fluid (pFF) on plasminogen activator (PA) activity and oocytes maturation in vitro in the pig. The cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) and denuded oocytes (DOs) were incubated in NCSU-23 medium with or without 10% pFF for 0, 24, or 48 hr. In the presence of cumulus cells, the proportions of oocytes matured to metaphase-II stage were significantly (P<0.05) higher in medium with pFF than without pFF (69.8 vs. 37.7%, respectively). When COCs and DOs were cultured in the presence of pFF, tissue-type PA (tPA), urokinase-type PA (uPA), and tPA-PA inhibitor (tPA-PAI) were observed in COCs, and PA activities were higher at 48 hr than 24 hr. When COCs and DOs were cultured in the absence of pFF, tPA and tPA-PAI were observed in COCs, and PA activities were increased as duration of culture increased. No PA activities were detected in DOs regardless of pFF supplementation. When porcine oocytes were cultured in the presence of pFF for 24 and 48 hrs, the activities of tPA-PAI, tPA, and uPA were observed in both COCs and DOs. In medium of absence of pFF, PA activities were observed in oocytes with cumulus cells only. On the other hand, three plasminogen-dependent lytic bands (tPA-PAI, tPA, and uPA) were observed in pFF cultures. Particularly uPA activity was higher than the other kinds of PA activity. When oocytes and cumulus cells were separated from porcine COCs at 0 hr of culture, tPA-PAI, tPA, and uPA were detected in cumulus cells at 48 hr of culture, but no PA activities were in DOs. The presence of pFF and cumulus cells in maturation medium stimulated not only nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation in porcine COCs, but also PA production by cumulus cells and COCs. It is possible that PAs produced by cumulus cells migrated through the gap junction between oocyte and cumulus cells. These results suggest that porcine oocytes have no ability to produce PA themselves.

• 한국수정란이식학회지
• /
• 제33권4호
• /
• pp.211-220
• /
• 2018

Nitric oxide (NO) has an important role in oocyte maturation and embryonic development in mammals. This study examined the effect of exogenous NO donor S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine (SNAP) in a maturation medium on meiotic progression and embryonic development after parthenogenesis (PA) and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) in pigs. When oocytes were exposed to $0.1{\mu}M$ SNAP for first 22 h of in vitro maturation (IVM) in Experiment 1, SNAP significantly improved blastocyst development in both defined and standard follicular fluid-supplemented media compared to untreated control (48.4 vs. 31.7-42.5%). SNAP treatment significantly arrested meiotic progression of oocytes at the germinal vesicle stage at 11 h of IVM (61.2 vs. 38.7%). However, there was no effect on meiotic progression at 22 h of IVM (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, when oocytes were treated with SNAP at 0.001, 0.1 and $10{\mu}M$ during the first 22 h of IVM to determine a suitable concentration, $0.1{\mu}M$ SNAP (54.2%) exhibited a higher blastocyst formation than 0 and $10{\mu}M$ SNAP (36.6 and 36.6%, respectively). Time-dependent effect of SNAP treatment was evaluated in Experiment 4. It was observed that SNAP treatment for the first 22 h of IVM significantly increased blastocyst formation compared to no treatment (57.1% vs. 46.2%). Antioxidant effect of SNAP was compared with that of cysteine. SNAP treatment significantly improved embryonic development to the blastocyst stage (49.1-51.5% vs. 34.4-37.5%) irrespective of the presence or absence of cysteine (Experiment 5). Moreover, SNAP significantly increased glutathione (GSH) content and inversely decreased the reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and mitochondrial oxidative activity in IVM oocytes. SNAP treatment during IVM showed a stimulating effect on in vitro development of SCNT embryos (Experiment 7). These results demonstrates that SNAP improves developmental competence of PA and SCNT embryos probably by maintaining the redox homeostasis through increasing GSH content and mitochondrial quality and decreasing ROS in IVM oocytes.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
• /
• 제36권4호
• /
• pp.237-241
• /
• 2012

Embryonic genome activation (EGA) is the first major transition that occurs after fertilization, and entails a dramatic reprogramming of gene expression that is essential for continued development. Although it has been suggested that EGA in porcine embryos starts at the four-cell stage, recent evidence indicates that EGA may commence even earlier; however, the molecular details of EGA remain incompletely understood. The RNA polymerase II of eukaryotes transcribes mRNAs and most small nuclear RNAs. The largest subunit of RNA polymerase II can become phosphorylated in the C-terminal domain. The unphosphorylated form of the RNA polymerase II largest subunit C-terminal domain (IIa) plays a role in initiation of transcription, and the phosphorylated form (IIo) is required for transcriptional elongation and mRNA splicing. In the present study, we explored the nuclear translocation, nuclear localization, and phosphorylation dynamics of the RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain in immature pig oocytes, mature oocytes, two-, four-, and eight-cell embryos, and the morula and blastocyst. To this end, we used antibodies specific for the IIa and IIo forms of RNA polymerase II to stain the proteins. Unphosphorylated RNA polymerase II stained strongly in the nuclei of germinal vesicle oocytes, whereas the phosphorylated form of the enzyme was confined to the chromatin of prophase I oocytes. After fertilization, both unphosphorylated and phosphorylated RNA polymerase II began to accumulate in the nuclei of early stage one-cell embryos, and this pattern was maintained through to the blastocyst stage. The results suggest that both porcine oocytes and early embryos are transcriptionally competent, and that transcription of embryonic genes during the first three cell cycles parallels expression of phosphorylated RNA polymerase II.

• 한국발생생물학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국발생생물학회 2003년도 제3회 국제심포지움 및 학술대회
• /
• pp.128-128
• /
• 2003

The aims of this study are 1) to test oocytes and embryos collected from in-vivo and in-vitro to achieving the valuable protocol by culturing, vitrifying and thawing of oocytes/embryos, and 2) to transfer them to recipient, and finally have resulted in pregnancies from recipient females after surgical or nonsurgical transfer. In vitro maturation and fertilization were performed according to the procedures of Funahashi et al. Fertilized oocytes were cultured in glucose-free NCSU 23 supplemented with 5 mM sodium pyruvate, 0.5 mM sodium lactate and 4 mg/ml bovine serum albumin for 2 days at 39$^{\circ}C$, and 10% fetal bovine serum was added to the culture medium thereafter. Embryos were treated with 7.5$\square$g/ml cytochalasin-B for 30 min, centrifuged at 13,000 ${\times}$ g for 13 min and then exposed sequentially to an ethylene glycol (EG) vitrification solution, aspirated into OPSs, and plunged/thawed into/from liquid nitrogen. In vivo embryos were surgically collected from three donors after Al. Forty-six embryos (18, 9 and 19 embryos, respectively) were washed 3 times in mPBS+10%FBS, followed treatments : cultured, centrifuged, vitrified, recovered and transferred to recipients as in vitro prepared embryos. Three recipients received surgically 34(control), 188 and 184 embryos (derived from abattoir), respectively. Another three recipients were received nonsurgically 150, 100 and 150 embryos, respectively. All recipient sows exhibited delayed returns to estrus. To our knowledge, these results suggest that required an improved techniques, more vigorous embryos preparation and cleaner uterous condition(use gilt).

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• 제21권3호
• /
• pp.358-363
• /
• 2008

The intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) procedure has recently been utilized to produce transgenic animals and may serve as an alternative to the conventional pronuclear microinjection in species such as pigs whose ooplasm is opaque and pronuclei are often invisible. In this study, the effects of sperm membrane disruption and electrical activation of oocytes on in vitro development and expression of transgene green fluorescent protein (GFP) in ICSI embryos were tested to refine this recently developed procedure. Prior to ICSI, sperm heads were treated with Triton X-100+NaCl or Triton X-100+NaCl+NaOH, to disrupt membrane to be permeable to exogenous DNA, and incubated with linearized pEGFP-N1 vector. To induce activation of oocytes, a single DC pulse of 1.3 kV/cm was applied to oocytes for $30{\mu}sec$. After ICSI was performed with the aid of a micromanipulator, in vitro development of embryos and GFP expression were monitored. The chemical treatment to disrupt sperm membrane did not affect the developmental competence of embryos. 40 to 60% of oocytes were cleaved after injection of sperm heads with disrupted membrane, whereas 48.6% (34/70) were cleaved without chemical treatment. Regardless of electrical stimulation to induce activation, oocytes were cleaved after ICSI, reflecting that, despite sperm membrane disruption, the perinuclear soluble sperm factor known to mediate oocyte activation remained intact. After development to the 4-cell stage, 11.8 (2/17, Triton X-100+NaCl+NaOH) to 58.8% (10/17, Triton X-100+NaCl) of embryos expressed GFP. The expression of GFP beyond the stage of embryonic genome activation (4-cell stage in the pig) indicates that the exogenous DNA might have been integrated into the porcine genome. When sperm heads were co-incubated with exogenous DNA following the treatment of Triton X-100+NaCl, GFP expression was observed in high percentage (58.8%) of embryos, suggesting that transgenic pigs may efficiently be produced using ICSI.

• BMB Reports
• /
• 제38권2호
• /
• pp.225-231
• /
• 2005

Acid-labile subunit (ALS) is a component of the 150-kDa insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) complex, which, by sequestering the majority of IGFs-I and -II and thereby prolonging the half-life of them in plasma, serves as a circulating reservoir of IGFs in mammalian species. A pGEX-2T plasmid and a baculovirus expression constructs harboring a coding sequence for glutathione-S transferase (GST)-porcine ALS (pALS) fusion protein were expressed in BL21(DE3) E. coli and Sf9 insect cells, respectively. The expressed protein was purified by glutathione or Ni-NTN affinity chromatography, followed by cleavage of the fusion protein using Factor Xa. In addition, pALS and hIGFBP-3 were also produced in small amounts in the Xenopus oocyte expression system which does not require any purification procedure. A 65-kDa pALS polypeptide was obtained following the prokaryotic expression and the enzymatic digestion, but biochemical characterization of this polypeptide was precluded because of an extremely low expression efficiency. The baculovirus-as well as Xenopus-expressed pALS exhibited the expected molecular mass of 85 kDa which was reduced into 75 and 65 kDa following deglycosylation of Asn-linked carbohydrates by Endo-F glycosidase, indicating that the expressed pALS was properly glycosylated. Moreover, irrespective of the source of pALS, the recombinant pALS and hIGFBP-3 formed a 130-kDa binary complex which could be immunoprecipitated by anti-hIGFBP-3 antibodies. Collectively, results indicate that an authentic pALS protein can be produced by the current expression systems.

• 한국수정란이식학회지
• /
• 제26권2호
• /
• pp.117-122
• /
• 2011

In this study, we examined the effectiveness of in vitro fertilization of porcine immature oocytes on the embryo development of blastocysts or hatched blastocysts and the number of cells according to the in vitro fertilization conditions. In the in vitro fertilization of in vitro matured porcine oocytes, there were no significant differences between treatment groups regarding fertilization rate, blastocyst rate, and embryo development of hatched blastocysts according to the storage periods of liquid sperm of 24, 48, and 72 hours. The embryo development rate of hatched blastocysts after the fertilization according to different spermatozoa concentrations ($0.4{\times}10^5$, $1.2{\times}10^5$, and $3.6{\times}10^5$ cells/ml) showed the highest rate in the group with a spermatozoa concentration of $1.2{\times}10^5$ cells/ml; in particular, this rate was significantly higher than that in the $0.4{\times}10^5$ cells/ml group (p<0.05). The total number of blastocysts cells as well as trophectoderms (TE) that developed in each treatment group were also significantly higher in the $1.2{\times}10^5$ cells/ml group than in any other groups (p<0.05). In contrast, the embryo development rate of blastocysts according to different co-incubation periods of sperm and oocyte (1, 3, and 6 hr) was high in the 6-hour group; in particular, the rate was significantly higher than that of the I-hour group (p<0.05). Furthermore, the total number of oocytes cells and TEs that developed was significantly higher in the 6-hour group than any other group (p<0.05). In this study, the most effective treatment conditions for porcine embryo development and high cell number were found to be as follows: a sperm storage period of less than 72 hours, a spermatozoa concentration of $1.2{\times}10^5$ cells/ml, and a 6-hour co-incubation period for sperm and ooocyte.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
• /
• 제36권1호
• /
• pp.71-77
• /
• 2012

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of thymidine treatment during $in$ $vitro$ maturation (IVM) of porcine follicular oocytes on blastocyst development. Porcine oocytes were treated with thymidine (10 mM, 20 mM and 30 mM) for 2 or 6 hr in the preiods of IVM I and/or II. The survival rates of the blastocysts in the 6 hr treatment groups of 10 mM and 20 mM during IVM I period were significantly higher than those of control group ($p$<0.05). However, the survival rate of the blastocysts in the 2 hr treatment group of 20 mM during IVM II period was significantly higher than control group ($p$<0.05). Furthermore, the survival rate of the blastocysts in the 6 hr treatment group of 30 mM during IVM II period was significantly lower than control group ($p$<0.05). Consistent with the previous result, blastocyst development of both IVM I and II treatment group was also showed as similar pattern. Total and apoptotic cell numbers of blastocysts derived from thymidine treated porcine oocytes were examined by using Tunel assay. The results showed that there was no significant differences in total cell number of blastocysts between thymidine treated and untreated groups. However, apoptosis-positive cells in the thymidine treated group (6 hr IVM I) were significantly lower than those of other groups ($p$<0.05). Taken together, these results indicate that high quality oocytes were selected by DNA synthesis mechanism according to high concentration thymidine treatment during porcine oocyte maturation. Therefore, we concluded that presumptive selected oocytes by thymidine treatment during maturation periods improved the further embryo development and embryonic quality of IVF embryos by decreasing the incidence of apoptosis in preimplantation porcine embryos.