• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Developmental Biology Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.119-119
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Embryo Transfer Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.87-88
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Embryo Transfer Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.119-119
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• 2005

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.1227-1231
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• 2004

Pig oocytes contain high levels of lipids in the ooplasm, which reduces the visibility of the germinal vesicle (GV) under microscopic examination. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to investigate the effects of relative centrifugation force (RCF) on the visibility and maturation rates of the GV stage oocytes after centrifugation. In Experiment 1, cumulus-oocyte-complexes (COCs) were collected from slaughterhouse ovaries and randomly allocated to different RCFs (3,000 rpm: 970 g; 6,000 rpm: 3,900 g; or 10,000 rpm: 10,840 g) for 10 or 20 min. Percentages of visible GV were 76-79% in the oocytes centrifuged with 10,000 rpm, which were significantly higher (p<0.01) than those with 3,000 and 6,000 rpm. No significant differences in GV visibility were observed among oocytes with different lengths of centrifugation (p<0.05) regardless of the RCFs. In esperiment 2, the maturation rate of the oocyte was found significantly lower in the 20 min than in the 10 min group received 10,840 g of RCF (30 vs. 75%, p<0.05). In conclusion, the GV of porcine oocytes can be clearly visible by centrifugation at 10,840 g for 10 min without compromising their subsequent maturation rates and a longer centrifugation time (20 min) had no beneficial influence on the visibility of GV stage pig oocytes.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.123-129
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• 2019

Many transcription factors are involved in directing the growth of porcine oocytes. The localization and expression level of a given transcription factor often differ at each stage of early embryonic growth, which spans from fertilization to the formation of the blastocyst. A hallmark of the blastocyst stage is the separation of the endodermal and mesodermal ectoderm. The embryo's medium and its effects are known to be crucial during early development compared to the other developmental stages, and thus require a lot of caution. Therefore, in many experiments, early development is divided into the quality of oocyte and cumulus cells and used in experiments. We thought that we were also heavily influenced by genetic reasons. Here, we examined the expression patterns of five key transcription factors (CDX2, OCT4, SOX2, NANOG, and E-CADHERIN) during porcine oocyte development whose expression patterns are controversial in the pig to the literature. Antibodies against these transcription factors were used to determine the expression and localization of them during the early development of pig embryos. These results indicate that the expressions of key transcription factors are generally similar in mouse and pig early developing embryos, but NANOG and SOX2 expression appears to show speciesspecific differences between pig and mouse developing embryos. This work helps us better understand how the expression patterns of transcription factors translate into developmental effects and processes, and how the expression and localization of different transcription factors can crucially impact oocyte growth and downstream developmental processes.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.139-146
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• 2017

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of fructose that was supplemented to a chemically defined in vitro maturation (IVM) medium on oocyte maturation and embryonic development after parthenogenesis in pigs. The base medium for in vitro maturation (IVM) was porcine zygote medium (PZM) that was supplemented with 0.05% (w/v) polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) or 10% (v/v) porcine follicular fluid (pFF). In the first experiment, when immature pig oocytes were matured in a chemically defined medium that was supplemented with 5.5 mM glucose or with 1.5, 3.0 and 5.5 mM fructose, 3.0 mM fructose resulted in a higher nuclear maturation (91.5%) than 1.5 and 5.5 mM fructose (81.9 and 81.9%, respectively) but showed a similar result with 5.5 mM glucose (94.2%). However, there was no significant differences among groups in the embryo cleavage (89.4-92.4%), blastocyst formation (37.5-41.1%), and mean cell number of blastocyst (30.8-34.2 cells). Fructose at the concentration of 3.0 mM (1.08 pixels/oocyte) resulted in a higher intra-oocyte glutathione (GSH) content than 1.5 and 5.5 mM fructose (1.00 and 0.87 pixels/oocytes, respectively) while the cumulus cell expansion was not influenced. In the second experiment, effect of individual and combined supplementation of a chemically defined maturation medium with 5.5 mM glucose or 3.0 mM fructose was examined. No significant effect was found in the nuclear maturation (86.3-92.6%). Embryo cleavage was significantly increased by the combined supplementation with glucose and fructose (95.2%) compared to that with 3.0 mM fructose only (85.7%) while blastocyst formation (37.3-42.8%) and embryonic cell number (33.3-34.1 cells) were not altered. Effect of supplementation of pFF-containing medium with glucose and fructose + glucose was examined in the third experiment. No significant effect by the supplementation with glucose and fructose or glucose alone was observed in the nuclear maturation of oocytes (90.7-94.1%) and blastocyst formation (51.0-56.5%). Our results demonstrate that 3.0 mM fructose was comparable to 5.5 mM glucose in supporting in vitro oocyte maturation and embryonic development after parthenogenesis and could be used as an alternative energy source to glucose for in vitro maturation of pig oocytes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Embryo Transfer Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.20-22
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• 2004

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.351-358
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• 2007

Carbohydrate-protein interactions are known to be important in gamete interactions. Several evidence indicated that a fucose-containing sulfated polysaccharide fucoidan was potential inhibitor of fertilization in vitro and thus fucose seemed to be part of the recognition signal of gamete interaction in mammals. In recent investigation we found that ${\alpha}$-L-fucosidase activity was present in boar spermatozoa and it was related to sperm binding to and penetration into zona pellucida (ZP) in vitro. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of monosaccharide L-fucose and polysaccharide fucoidan on sperm ${\alpha}$-L-fucosidase activity and relation to sperm-oocyte interaction in pig. Results indicated that the activity of sperm ${\alpha}$-L-fucosidase was largely inhibited (62%) when sperm suspension was treated with monosaccharide L-fucose. It also significantly inhibited the number of sperm binding to ZP (32%) and penetration into zona-intact oocytes (72%), but did not inhibit penetration into zona-free oocytes when fertilization medium contained L-fucose. The chlorotetracycline (CTC) assessment showed that L-fucose did not affect induction of sperm capacitation and acrosome reaction. In contrast, the activity of sperm ${\alpha}$-L-fucosidase was not inhibited when sperm suspension was treated with polysaccharide fucoidan but sperm-ZP binding was greatly inhibited (85%) and completely blocked sperm penetration into zona-intact or zona-free oocytes. The CTC assessment showed that fucoidan increased the F pattern and decreased the AR pattern sperm. These results suggested that the different inhibitory mechanisms were present between monosaccharide L-fucose and polysaccharide fucoidan on sperm-oocyte interaction, the inhibition effect of ${\alpha}$-L-fucose on sperm binding and penetrating into ZP caused sperm ${\alpha}$-L-fucosidase inhibited by ${\alpha}$-L-fucose.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.97-104
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• 2009

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of macromolecule in a maturation medium on nuclear maturation, intracellular glutathione (GSH) level of oocytes, and embryonic development after parthenogenetic activation (PA) and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) in pigs. Immature pig oocytes were cultured in maturation medium that was supplemented with each polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), pig follicular fluid (pFF) or newborn calf serum (NBCS) during the first 22 h and the second 22 h. Oocyte maturation was not influenced by the source of macromolecules during in vitro maturation (IVM). Embryo cleavage and cell number in blastocyst after PA was altered by the source of macromolecule but no difference was observed in blastocyst formation among treatments. Oocytes matured in PVA-PVA medium showed lower rates of oocyte-cell fusion (70.4% vs. 77${\sim}$82%) and embryo cleavage (75% vs. 86${\sim}$90%) after SCNT than those matured in other media but blastocyst formation was not altered (13${\sim}$27%) by different macromolecules. pFF added to IVM medium significantly increased the intracellular GSH level of oocytes compared to PVA and NBCS, particularly when pFF was supplemented during the first 22 h of IVM. Our results demonstrate that source of macromolecule in IVM medium influences developmental competence of oocytes after PA and SCNT, and that pFF supplementation during the early period (first 22 h) of IVM increases intracellular GSH level of oocytes.

• Proceedings of the KSAR Conference
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• 2001.03a
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• pp.43-43
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• 2001

This study evaluated the effect of fertilization-promoting peptide (FPP) on fertilizing ability and glycosidase activity in vitro of spermatozoa frozen-thawed in pig, Using chlortetracycline fluorescence analysis, the various glycosidase analyses and the oocyte penetration test, we have obtained evidence that FPP can promote the fertilizing ability and glycosidase activity of frozen-thawed spermatozoa in vitro. When frozen-thawed spermatozoa was washed with different concentrations of FPP, there were significantly (P<0.05) more acrosome-reacted in medium with 100 nM than 0, 50, 200 and 400 nM. The penetration rates were also highest in medium containing with 100 nM FPP (P<0.05). On the other hand, the $\beta$-N-acetylglucosaminidase activity was at least twofold higher than other glycosidase. In same glycosidase, however, there were no difference in medium with different concentrations of FPP In another experiment, spermatozoa preincubated in medium with or without FPP for 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 h were inseminated with oocytes matured in vitro. The percentages of spermatozoa that reached acrosome reaction were affected by preincubation and were higher in medium with that than without FPP. When oocytes were inseminated with spermatozoa preincubated in medium with and without FPP during the different periods, however, penetration rates were decreased with preincubation periods of spermatozoa. On the other hand, when the sperm-oocyte were cultured for 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 h, the penetration rates were higher in spermatozoa preincubated with that than without FPP and had a tendency to increase as time of culture periods. However, The activities of $\alpha$-fucosidase, $\alpha$ -mannosidase, $\beta$-galactosidase and N-acetyl- $\beta$-D-glucosaminidase were higher in medium with that than without FPP regardless of periods of sperm preincubation and sperm-oocyte culture. These results suggest that FPP may play a positive role in promoting of sperm function and glycosidase activity in vitro in pig.