1. Efficiency of the zinc chelator 1,10-phenanthroline for assisted oocyte activation following ICSI in pigs.
- Author
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Briski, Olinda, Cabeza, Juan P., Salamone, Daniel F., Fernández-Martin, Rafael, and Gambini, Andrés
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INTRACYTOPLASMIC sperm injection , *REPRODUCTIVE health , *OVUM , *CHELATING agents , *FERTILIZATION in vitro - Abstract
Context: In vitro embryo production in pigs is an important tool for advancing biomedical research. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) circumvents the polyspermy problems associated with conventional IVF in porcine. However, the suboptimal efficiency for ICSI in pigs requires new strategies to increase blastocyst formation rates. Aim: To investigate novel methods for assisted activation using the zinc chelator 1,10-phenanthroline (PHEN), and to improve embryo developmental competence and quality of ICSI porcine blastocyst. Methods: ICSI embryos were treated with PHEN after or before sperm injection, recording pronuclear formation, blastocyst rate and the expression of SMARCA4, OCT4, SOX2 and CDX2. Key results: Neither electrical nor PHEN significantly improves pronuclear formation rates before or after ICSI. Following in vitro culture to the blastocyst stage, no significant differences were observed in developmental rates among the groups. Moreover, the use of PHEN did not alter the total cell number or the expression of OCT4, SOX2 and CDX2 in pig ICSI blastocysts. Conclusions: Assisted oocyte activation with PHEN does not affect the preimplantation development of ICSI-derived pig embryos. Implications: These results hold significance in refining and advancing the application of assisted oocyte activation techniques. They offer insights into addressing fertility issues and propelling advancements in human and animal reproductive medicine. Improving pig embryo development holds great promise for agriculture and biomedical research. This study investigated the use of a zinc chelator, 110-phenanthroline, to enhance assisted oocyte activation in pigs following intracytoplasmic sperm injection. While no differences in embryo development or quality were found, this indicates that zinc chelation is a potentially safe method for inducing oocyte activation, providing a foundation for future advancements in human and animal assisted reproductive research. Image generated by ChatGPT-4 (OpenAI, 2024). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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