Functional role of Forskolin and PD166285 in the development of denuded mouse oocytes.

Objective: cAMP and mature promoting factor (MPF) play critical roles during the maturation of mammalian oocytes. The aim of this study was to produce the offspring from denuded oocytes (DOs) in mice by regulating cAMP and MPF.

Methods: In this study, we used DOs at the germinal vesicle (GV) stage in mice and regulated levels of cAMP and MPF in DOs by adding Forskolin and PD166285 during maturation without follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone, respectively.

All-trans retinoic acid improves goat oocyte nuclear maturation and reduces apoptotic cumulus cells during in vitro maturation.

All-trans retinoic acid (t-RA) is a natural component and representative physiologically active metabolite of vitamin A, having multiple physiologic functions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of t-RA on goat oocyte maturation and cumulus cell apoptosis during in vitro maturation (IVM). Immature goat cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were matured in vitro in the absence or presence of t-RA at concentrations of 10 nmol/L, 100 nmol/L and 1000 nmol/L.

Effects of vitamin C on characteristics retaining of in vitro-cultured mouse adipose-derived stem cells.

Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs), a subset of mesenchymal stem cells, have promising potential for regenerative medicine applications. However, the efficient culture of mouse adipose-derived stem cells (mADSCs) is complicated or impracticable and many properties of mADSCs are still unknown. Here, we report that vitamin C (Vc) is available for the long-term culture of mADSCs in vitro.