Reproduction Abstracts

Introduction: Aneuploidies in mammalian embryos usually originate from oocyte chromosome segregation errors in meiosis I and are a major genetic cause of pregnancy loss. But the mechanism remains poorly understood. We have previously shown total two-cell arrest of IVF embryos derived from superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1)-deficient mouse oocytes under atmospheric oxygen conditions. This study was conducted to investigate effects of intrinsic oxidative stress by a SOD1 deficiency d...

Introduction: Cystine-glutamate transporter (xCT) regulates cysteine levels by limiting uptake of cystine and consequently determines glutathione (GSH) contents in the cells. This study was performed to clarify effects of xCT deficiency (KO) on oocyte quality and ovarian function during maternal aging.Materials and methods: Ovaries and plasma were collected from young (2 months) and aged (12 months) C57BL/6 xCT-KO and WT mice at 44 h after PMSG treatment...

Introduction: Supplementation of appropriate amount of vitamin C (VC) improves oocyte fertilization and subsequent embryo development while high concentrations of VC rather reduce the developmental potency. To clarify the role of VC, oocytes were collected from aldehyde reductase (AKR1A) knockout mice that are unable to synthesize VC and subjected to analyses from view point of developmental potency and gene expression involved in VC metabolism.Materials...