Reproduction Abstracts

Introduction: Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a signaling molecule derived from phospholipid known to have biological activities such as stimulating proliferation and differentiation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of LPA on IVM of porcine oocytes and subsequent embryonic development after IVF and parthenogenetic activation (PA).

Methods: We examined nuclear maturation, intracellular GSH and ROS levels and subsequent embryonic development after IVF and PA in porcine oocytes matured in 0.1% PVA-TCM199 containing either 0, 10, 30, or 60 μM LPA.

Results and discussion: After 44 h of IVM, the 30 μM LPA group showed significant (P<0.05) increased in nuclear maturation (90.31%) compared other groups (82.50, 86.22 and 86.72%, respectively). The 30 μM LPA group exhibited a significant increase in intracellular GSH levels and decrease in intracellular ROS levels compared with other groups. Oocytes matured with 30 μM LPA during IVM had significantly higher cleavage rates after PA (81.51%) than other groups (74.19, 77.53 and 74.63%, respectively). The blastocyst formation rates, also, 30 μM LPA group showed significantly higher (62.04%) than other groups (50.03, 55.02 and 57.09%, respectively). The IVF embryonic competence, 30 μM LPA group had significantly higher cleavage rates (70.58%) than other LPA groups (63.83, 67.76 and 67.07%, respectively). Likewise, the blastocyst formation rates showed significantly higher in 30 μM LPA group (37.87%) than other groups (31.07, 33.93 and 33.97%, respectively). The expression of anti-apoptotic genes in cumulus cells (caspase-3) was decreased, significantly. In conclusion, the treatment with 30 μM LPA during IVM improved the developmental potential of PA and IVF embryos by increasing the GSH level, thereby decreasing the ROS level during oocyte maturation. In addition, LPA was shown to affect the anti-apoptotic during the maturation of Oocytes in cumulus cells.

Acknowledgements: This research was supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) through the Encouragement Program for The Industries of Economic Cooperation Region (Project No. R0004357), Republic of Korea.