This study was to determine the effect of ionomycin and 6-dimethylaminopurine (6-DMAP) and/or elcetrical stimulation on the oocyte activation and production of rabbit nuclear transplant embryos. The oocytes were collected from the oviduct of superovul...
This study was to determine the effect of ionomycin and 6-dimethylaminopurine (6-DMAP) and/or elcetrical stimulation on the oocyte activation and production of rabbit nuclear transplant embryos. The oocytes were collected from the oviduct of superovulated rabbits at 14 h post hCG injection and cultured in TCM-199 containing 10% FBS until 19 h post hCG injection. To determine the optimum concentration and exposure time of 6-DMAP, some oocytes were activated with 5 M ionomycin for 5 min and then in 2.0 mM 6-DMAP for 0.5 to 3.0 h, or in 1.0 to 3.0 mM 6-DMAP for 2.0 h. Other control oocytes were stimulated electrically(3X, 1.25 kV/cm, 60 sec) in 0.3 M mannitol solution supplemented with 100 M CaCl and MgCl. The nuclear donor embryos of 8-cell stage were synchronized to G phase of 16-cell stage, and the recipient cytoplasms were obtained from removal of the first polar body and a portion of membrane bound cytoplasm of the oocytes collected at 15 h post hCG injection. A separated blastomere was injected into the perivitelline space of the enucleated oocytes. The oocytes injected with nucleus were cultured until 19 h post hCG and then electrofused and activated by electrical stimulation with or without ionomycin and 6-DMAP. These nuclear transplant embryos were cultured in TCM-199 containing 10% FBS in 39ºC, 5% CO2 incubator for 120 h. For the oncytes activated parthenogenetically with electrical stimulation with or with-out ionomycin and the various concentration of exposure time of 6-DMAP, the highest cleavage(92.3%) and development to blastocyst stage(41.0%) were resulted from the oocytes activated by ionomycin and 2.0 mM 6-DMAP for 2.0 h, which were found to be significantly(P<0.05) higher than the cleavage(45.2%) and developement to blastocyst stage(14.3%) from the oocytes activated with electrical stimulation. The significantly(P<0.05) more oocytes(71.4%) developed to 4 cell stage at 24 h post activation by ionomycin and 6-DMAP than those by electrical stimulation(18.9%). For the nuclear transplant embryos, the cleavage rate was similarly high in oocyte activation by electrical stimulation with(79.4%) or without ionomycin and 6-DMAP(70.5%). However, the embryo development to blastocyst stage was significantly(P<0.05) higher in oocyte activation by electrical stimulation with ionomycin and 6-DMAP(44.4%) than by electrical stimulation only(25.0%). The significantly(P<0.05) more nuclear transplant embryos(45.6%) developed to 4 cell stage at 18 h post activation by electrical stimulation with ionomycin and 6-DMAP than those by electrical stimulation only(10.6%). These results indicated that the supplemental oocyte activation by ionomycin and 6-DMAP with electrical stimulation enhanced and accelerated the preimplanted in vitro development of the rabbit nuclear transplant embryos.