Alpha-Lipoic Acid Can Overcome The Reduced Developmental Competency Induced by Alcohol Toxicity during Ovine Oocyte Maturation.

Objective: Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) as a strong antioxidant has a protective effect. This study was designed to assess whether supplementation of maturation medium with ALA during maturation (IVM) can attenuate the toxic effect of ethanol.

Materials And Methods: In this experimental study, to assess the antioxidant capacity of ALA challenged by 1% ethanol during maturation, immature ovine oocytes were exposed to 1% alcohol in the presence or absence of 25 μM ALA during oocyte maturation.

siRNA inhibition and not chemical inhibition of Suv39h1/2 enhances pre-implantation embryonic development of bovine somatic cell nuclear transfer embryos.

The efficiency of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is low due to the strong resistance of somatic donor cells to epigenetic reprogramming. Many epigenetic drugs targeting DNA methylation and histone acetylation have been used in attempts to improve the in vitro and in vivo development of SCNT embryos. H3K9me3 has been shown to be an important reprogramming barrier for generating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and SCNT embryos in mice and humans.

Supplementation of maturation medium with CoQ10 enhances developmental competence of ovine oocytes through improvement of mitochondrial function.

In vitro maturation (IVM) can impair the balance between antioxidant capacity and oxidative stress, and jeopardize embryo development by increasing oxidative stress, reducing energy metabolism, and causing improper meiotic segregation. Balancing the energy production and reduction of oxidative stress can be achieved by supplementation with coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), an electron transporter in the mitochondrial inner membrane. To improve the in vitro production of ovine embryos, we studied the effect of CoQ10 supplementation during the maturation of sheep oocytes.

Functional characterization of NANOG in goat pre-implantation embryonic development.

Nanog as a novel pluripotent cell-specific gene plays important roles in regulation of signaling pathways for maintenance and induction of pluripotency in inner cell mass (ICM) and embryonic stem cells (ESC) in mouse. The molecular features and transcription regulation of NANOG gene in domestic animals are not well defined. In this study, we performed knockdown of NANOG mRNA in goat embryos and examined its effect on early embryonic development.

Cathepsin B inhibitor improves developmental competency and cryo-tolerance of in vitro ovine embryos.

Background: Cathepsin B is a lysosomal cysteine protease involved in apoptosis and oocytes which have lower developmental competence show higher expression of Cathepsin B. Furthermore, expression of Cathepsin B show a decreasing trend from oocyte toward blastocyst stage.

Results: Present study assessed the effect of cathepsin B inhibitor, E-64, on developmental competency and cryo-survival of pre-implantation ovine IVF derived embryos.