• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.207-211
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• 2010

Current developments in IVF and animal cloning have resulted in increasing demand for large quantities of oocytes and ovarian follicles at specific stages of development. These medical and scientific needs may be met by developing an optimal culture system for preantral follicles. In this study, we investigated the growth of porcine preantral follicle cultures in different media and in the presence and absence of serum. Follicles were manually dissected from ovaries obtained from prepubertal gilts at a local slaughterhouse, and cultured for 3 days in M199 or NCSU23 medium supplemented with porcine FSH, transferrin, L-ascorbic acid and insulin. Follicle diameters were measured on day 1 and 3 of culture. In Experiment 1, the effect of supplementing culture medium with fetal calf serum (FCS) on porcine preantral follicle growth was examined. In the group of cultures supplemented with FCS, follicle diameter after 3 days of culture, survival rate and antrum formation rate in the FCS group were significantly higher than those of the control group. In Experiment 2, the effects of culture medium (M199 and NCSU23) on follicle growth were compared. Follicle diameters were increased in the M199 group, compared with those in NCSU23 (p<0.05), but we observed no significant differences in survival and antrum formation rates between cultures grown in the two media. In conclusion, supplementation of the culture medium with serum enhances preantral follicle growth and antrum formation, and M199 is superior to NUSU23 for porcine preantral follicle culture in vitro.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.353-357
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• 2008

A series of studies has been conducted to establish a base infrastructure for an ovarian follicle culture system in the porcine and this study was designed to develop an effective retrieval protocol of preantral follicles. Five different methods using collagenase type I (A) or IV (B, C1, C2 and C3), which employed different treatment durations and/or conditions, were employed and sliced ovarian tissue of prepubertal gilts was provided for the retrieval. A significant increase in total number of follicles retrieved was detected when collagenase IV (methods B or C) was used. In total, more ovarian follicles were retrieved by method B undertaking agitation and method C2 without the agitation than method C1 and C3, while the number of preantral follicles collected was the largest in method B. Neither incubation in 5% $CO_2$ in air atmosphere instead of the agitation nor increased duration of enzymatic treatment up to 120 minutes improved the efficiency of follicle retrieval. There were no differences in the number of follicles retrieved from intact ovaries and from used ovaries for oocyte collection. These results demonstrate the collagenase IV treatment with agitation is effective for retrieving porcine preantral follicles from the ovaries.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.950-955
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• 2012

This study was conducted to determine how the isolation method of the porcine preantral follicles influenced the following follicular growth in vitro. Mechanical and enzymatical isolations were used for retrieving the follicles from prepubertal porcine ovaries, and in vitro-growth of the follicles and the expression of folliculogenesis-related genes were subsequently monitored. The enzymatic retrieval with collagenase treatment returned more follicles than the mechanical retrieval, while the percentage of morphologically normal follicles was higher with mechanical retrieval than with enzymatic retrieval. After 4 days of culture, mechanically retrieved, preantral follicles yielded more follicles with normal morphology than enzymatically retrieved follicles, which resulted in improved follicular growth. The mRNA expression of FSHR, LHR Cx43, DNMT1 and FGFR2 genes was significantly higher after culture of the follicles retrieved mechanically. These results suggest that mechanical isolation is a better method of isolating porcine preantral follicles that will develop into competent oocytes in in vitro culture.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.17-22
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• 2013

Although assisted reproductive technology is very useful to develop novel and therapeutic biomaterials for reproduction, research on molecular mechanism of folliculogenesis in pig is not clear. Therefore, the alteration of gene expression during follicular development in pigs was examined in this study. The expression of folliculogenesis-related genes was quantified in preantral ($250{\sim}300{\mu}m$) and antral (> $300{\mu}m$ in diameter) follicles, and overall gene expression was evaluated by a genome-wide microarray. The microarray results showed that 219 genes were differentially expressed, and of those, 10 and 22 known genes showed higher and less expression at the preantral stage than at antral stages, respectively. Among them, the expression of NR0B1, PPARG, GATA4, and ANXA2 genes related to folliculogenesis was validated by quantitative real-time PCR analysis. The expression of PPARG and GATA4 genes were increased at antral stages, but a significantly stage-specific increase (p<0.05) was only detected in annexin A2 (ANXA2) in antral-stage follicles. The expression of NR0B1 genes was increased at preantral stage and these patterns of gene expression were comparable to the results obtained by microarray analysis. We propose that the systematical regulation of genes supporting specific follicle stage should be employed for improved in-vitro folliculognesis.