Reproduction Abstracts

Introduction: The present study aims to investigate the effect of resveratrol supplementation on the in vitro development of porcine oocytes derived from early antral follicles.

Materials and methods: Oocyte-granulosa cell complexes (OGCs) were collected from early antral follicles that were 0.5–0.7 mm in diameter and cultured in the absence or present of resveratrol (2 μM) for 14 days. The effect of resveratrol on SIRT1 expression was determined by immunostaining, furthermore the in vitro development of the OGCs was examined by assessing the antrum formation rate, the nuclear maturation following in vitro maturation, and the developmental ratio to the blastocyst stage after activation. In addition, ATP levels and the mitochondrial DNA copy number in oocytes grown in vitro were examined.

Results and discussion: Supplementation of culture medium with resveratrol increased SIRT1 expression in oocytes, while neither the antrum formation rate nor the viability of surrounding granulosa cells was affected by resveratrol. The rate of nuclear maturation was not affected by resveratrol. The developmental competence of oocytes grown in vitro was however improved, with the blastocyst rate being higher than that for oocytes cultured in the absence of resveratrol (1.6 vs 7.4%). Furthermore, resveratrol supplementation significantly increased the ATP levels in the in vitro-cultured oocytes (3.0 vs 3.5 pM), but did not affect the mitochondrial DNA copy number. In conclusion, our findings indicate that resveratrol improves the developmental potential of oocytes derived from early antrum follicles by improving mitochondrial function.

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant number 25450400.