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Dihydromyricetin (DHM), a dihydroflavonoid compound, exhibits a variety of biological activities, including antitumor activity. However, the effects of DHM on mammalian reproductive processes, especially during early embryonic development, remain unclear. In this study, we added DHM to porcine zygotic medium to explore the influence and underlying mechanisms of DHM on the developmental competence of parthenogenetically activated porcine embryos. Supplementation with 5 μM DHM during in vitro culture (IVC) significantly improved blastocyst formation rate and increased the total number of cells in porcine embryos. Further, DHM supplementation also improved glutathione levels and mitochondrial membrane potential; reduced natural reactive oxygen species levels in blastomeres and apoptosis rate; upregulated Nanog, Oct4, SOD1, SOD2, Sirt1, and Bcl2 expression; and downregulated Beclin1, ATG12, and Bax expression. Collectively, DHM supplementation regulated oxidative stress during IVC and could act as a potential antioxidant during in vitro porcine oocytes maturation.

Glycerol is widely used as a cryoprotectant to protect the sperm from freezing damage during cryopreservation. However, glycerol at a high concentration has toxic effects on the sperm. Therefore, we explored the effects of partially replacing glycerol with cholesterol-loaded cyclodextrin (CLC) in a cryoprotectant on protamine deficiency, in vitro capacitation, and fertilization ability of freeze-thawed Yanbian Yellow cattle sperm. We used fresh semen, control (6% glycerol), and four treatment-I, II, III, and IV (3% glycerol + 0, 0.75, 1.5, and 3 mg/mL CLC, respectively)-groups. Computer-assisted semen analysis; JC-1, CMA3, and FluoZin-3-AM staining; flow cytometry; and IVF were conducted. Replacing a portion of glycerol with 1.5 mg/mL CLC significantly improved sperm motility, viability, plasma membrane integrity, acrosome integrity, and membrane lipid disorders, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), capacitation, and fertilization ability (P < 0.05) compared with the control. Additionally, in group I and III, the protamine deficiency were significantly lower (P < 0.05) than in the control group. It was found that 6% glycerol has a higher degree of damage to sperm DNA integrity than 3% glycerol. Overall, this study revealed that partial replacement of glycerol with CLC can be used as a novel cryoprotection method to reduce the toxicity of glycerol and improve the quality of thawed Yanbian Yellow cattle sperm., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

This study evaluates the protective role of oyster peptide (OP) on the occurrence of Exercise-Hypogonadal Male Condition. Male rats were given heavy-load swimming training and / or OP was supplemented for 6 consecutive weeks. After heavy-load training, sperm count, sperm viability and sperm motility in epididymis, testosterone in serum and testis, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-px) and androgen receptor (AR) in testis and mating times were remarkably decreased, malondialdehyde (MDA), capture latency and mating latency were significantly increased, mRNA expression of steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) and P450 cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme (P450scc) were obviously down-regulated, but serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinising hormone (LH) were not statistically changed. Conversely, when OP was supplemented at heavy-load training, sperm count, sperm viability and sperm motility in epididymis, serum FSH, LH, testosterone, GSH-px, superoxide dismutase (SOD), testosterone, AR in testis and mating times were dramatically increased, while testicular MDA, capture latency and mating latency were significantly decreased, and mRNA expression of StAR, StARD7, P450scc and 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3β-HSD) were significantly up-regulated. In conclusion, heavy-load training causes testicular spermatogenic and steroidogenic disorders by enhancing the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can be protected by the co-administration of OP by enhancing the function of pituitary gonad axis and lowering ROS generation., (© 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

L-carnitine (LC) is well known for its antioxidant activity. In this study, we explored the potential mechanistic effects of LC supplementation on aged bovine oocytes in vitro. We showed that in-vitro maturation could enhance the subsequent developmental capacity of aging oocytes, when supplemented with LC. After in vitro fertilization, the blastocyst formation rate in the aged oocytes post-LC treatment significantly increased compared to that in untreated aged oocytes (29.23 ± 2.20% vs. 20.90 ± 3.05%). Furthermore, after LC treatment, the level of intracellular reactive oxygen species in aged oocytes significantly decreased, and glutathione levels significantly increased, compared to those in untreated aged oocytes. Mitochondrial membrane potential, the percentage of early apoptotic oocytes, and caspase-3 activity were significantly reduced in LC-treated aged oocytes compared to those in untreated aged oocytes. Furthermore, during in vitro aging, the mRNA levels of the anti-apoptotic genes, Bcl-xl and survivin in LC-treated aged oocytes were significantly higher than those in untreated aged oocytes. Overall, these results indicate that at least in in vitro conditions, LC can prevent the aging of bovine oocytes and improve the developmental capacity of bovine embryo.

Pterostilbene (PTS) mainly enriched in small fruits such as berries and grapes exerts an antioxidant effect. However, the protective effects of PTS against endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) have not yet been elucidated in mouse preimplantation embryo. ERS plays an important role in regulating the pathological and physiological processes, including embryonic development. We explored the protective effect of PTS on the tunicamycin (TM)-induced ERS in mouse preimplantation embryos. In vitro, culture medium was supplemented with different concentrations of TM and PTS. Our result indicated that treatment of zygotes with 0.5 μg/ml TM significantly decreased the development of day 4 blastocysts (P < 0.05), whereas 0.25 μM PTS supplementation improved the development rate of blastocysts. Moreover, TM treatment significantly increased (P < 0.05) the apoptotic index and reduced the total cell number of the blastocyst, whereas PTS treatment counteracted these effects. Additionally, TM potently increased expression levels of ERS-related proteins, such as GRP78, ATF6, PERK, p-Perk, IRE1, ATF4, and CHOP (P < 0.05). However, PTS and PTS + TM treatment decreased expression levels of ERS-related proteins (P < 0.05). Furthermore, expression level of the anti-apoptotic protein and gene BCL2 significantly decreased (P < 0.05) in TM-treated embryo but increased by PTS treatment (P < 0.05), whereas expression levels of the pro-apoptotic protein and gene BAX increased (P < 0.05) with TM but significantly decreased (P < 0.05) with co-treatment with PTS. In summary, PTS treatment significantly increased the development potential of mouse embryo by reduction of ERS.

We investigated the effect of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPS) medium on porcine somatic cell nuclear transfer and bovine in vitro fertilized early blastocysts, in comparison with North Carolina State University (NCSU)-37 medium and in vitro culture (IVC)-II medium. After 2 days of culture, the diameter of the portion of the blastocyst that was extruded from the zona pellucid dramatically differed between porcine blastocysts cultured in hiPS medium and those cultured in NCSU-37 medium (221.47 ± 38.94 μm versus 481.87 ± 40.61 μm, P < 0.01). Moreover, the diameter of the portion of the blastocyst significantly differed between bovine blastocysts cultured in hiPS medium and those cultured in IVC-II medium (150.30 ± 29.49 μm versus 195.58 ± 41.59 μm, P < 0.01). Furthermore, the total number of cells per porcine and bovine blastocyst was more than two-fold higher in blastocysts cultured in hiPS medium than in those cultured in NCSU-37 medium (44.33 ± 5.28 and 143.33 ± 16.05, P < 0.01) or IVC-II medium (172.12 ± 45.08 and 604.83 ± 242.64, P < 0.01), respectively. These results indicate that hiPS medium markedly improves the quality of porcine and bovine blastocysts.

Objective: To analyze the combined features of serum biomarker of exercise-intervened type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) rats at different time point., Methods: Ninety SD rats randomly selected from 100 were fed with high glucose and fat diet for 4 weeks, and then received intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin(STZ) according to 40 mg/kg by weight; after modeling for one week, Seventy-one rats were successfully modeled among which intervened with swimming at three different time points (2w, 4w and 8w). Eighty-one rats were finally divided into 8 groups as below:Normal control group (C 0 , n =10);DM model comparison group (DC 0 , n =10); DM model comparison 2w group (DC 2 , n =11); DM model comparison 4w group (DC 4 , n =10); DM model comparison 8w group (DC 8 , n =9); DM exercise intervention 2w group (DE 2 , n =11); DM exercise intervention 4w group (DE 4 , n =10); DM exercise intervention 8w group (DE 8 , n =11).The UPLC/Q-TOF MS technique was used to conduct metabonomics test of serum of rats to analyze the combined features of serum biomarkers under exercise intervention at different time points., Results: According to fold change, we got the biomarker combinations (with 15 specific substances in each combination) of exercise intervention at three time points. In these serum biomarker combinations that were specific at different time points, a majority of metabolites appeared simultaneously at different time points but with obvious difference of fold change. Fold change of monoglyceride(24:6) and gluconic acid were most evident respectively at 2w and 4w intervention time points,Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA) andlinolenic acid(LA) contents might approach the normal level at 4~8 time point., Conclusions: Combined features of serum biomarker of exercise-intervened T2DM rats are specific at different time point. Both EPA and LA are common substances significantly up-regulated while MonoglycerideMG(24:6), Gluconic acid, Propionyl-L-carnitine(PLC), Arginine(Arg) and Sphingosine-1-phosphate (SPP) are common substances significantly down-regulated at three time points.