Effect of oxygen tension and antioxidants on the developmental competence of buffalo oocytes cultured in vitro

Vet World Vol.14 January-2021 Article-10

Research Article

Veterinary World, 14(1): 78-84

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2021.78-84

Amro M. El-Sanea¹, Ahmed Sabry S. Abdoon¹, Omaima M. Kandil¹, Nahed E. El-Toukhy², Amal M. Abo El-maaty¹, and Hodallah H. Ahmed²

1. Department of Animal Reproduction and Artificial Insemination, Veterinary Research Division, National Research Centre, Tahrir St., Dokki 12622, Cairo, Egypt.
2. Department of Animal Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza Square 12211, Cairo, Egypt.

Background and Aim: Oxidative stress (OS) is one of the major disruptors of oocyte developmental competence, which appears due to the imbalance between the production and neutralization of reactive oxygen species (ROS).

Materials and Methods: In Experiment 1, buffalo oocytes were in vitro matured, fertilized, and cultured at 38.5°C under 5% CO2 + 20% O2 in standard CO2 incubator (OS) or under 5% O2 + 5% CO2 + 90% N2 (Multi-gas incubator, low O2). In Experiment 2, buffalo cumulus oocytes complexes (COCs) were matured in Basic maturation medium (BMM) composed of TCM199+ 10% FCS+ 10 μg/ml FSH+ 50 μg/ml gentamicin (control group) or in BMM supplemented with 50 μM ascorbic acid (ascorbic acid group) or 3.0 mM glutathione (glutathione group) or 10-5 M melatonin (melatonin group) and cultured at 38.5°C under 20% O2 for 24 h. Matured buffalo oocytes in control, ascorbic acid, or melatonin groups were fertilized and zygotes were cultured for 8 days under the same conditions.

Results: In both experiments, maturation, cleavage, and blastocyst rates were recorded. Results showed that culture of buffalo oocytes under low O2 (5% O2) significantly increased maturation, cleavage, and blastocyst rates (p<0.05). Meanwhile, under 20% O2, addition of 10-5 M melatonin or 50 μM ascorbic acid to in vitro maturation (IVM) medium significantly improved cumulus cell expansion, nuclear maturation rates of buffalo oocytes (p<0.05), and increased cleavage and blastocyst rates (p<0.05).

Conclusion: About 5% O2 is the optimum condition for in vitro production of buffalo embryos, and addition of 10-5 M melatonin to IVM medium for oocytes cultured under 20% O2 could alleviate the adverse effect of high oxygen tension and increased embryo yield. Keywords: antioxidants, buffalo oocytes, developmental competence, in vitro embryo production, O2 tension.

Keywords: antioxidants, buffalo oocytes, developmental competence, in vitro embryo production, O2 tension.

How to cite this article: El-Sanea AM, Abdoon ASS, Kandil OM, El-Toukhy NE, Abo El-Maaty AM, Ahmed HH (2021) Effect of oxygen tension and antioxidants on the developmental competence of buffalo oocytes cultured in vitro, Veterinary World, 14(1): 78-84.

Received: 05-10-2020 Accepted: 24-11-2020 Published online: 11-01-2021

Corresponding author: Hodallah H. Ahmed E-mail: hodaahatem@yahoo.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2021.78-84

Copyright: El-Sanea, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.