Effects of green tea polyphenols, insulin-like growth factor I and glucose on developmental competence of bovine oocytes

Abstract

The present study examined the effects of green tea polyphenols (GTP), insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and glucose on oocyte in vitro maturation, subsequent embryo development and blastocyst quality in bovine. Cumulus-oocyte complexes (COC) were aspirated from the ovaries and cultured in synthetic oviduct fluid supplemented with MEM amino acids (SOFaa) media supplemented with one of the following supplements: GTP (0, 10, 15 and 20 µM), IGF-I (0, 50, 100 and 150 ng/mL) or glucose (0, 1.5, 5.6 and 20 mM) for 24 h. The results showed that oocytes cultured in media supplemented with 15 µM GTP, 100 ng/mL IGF-I and 5.6 mM glucose, in separate experiments, have higher cleavage and blastocyst rates compared with oocytes cultured in media without or with other concentration of GTP, IGF-I and glucose. Then these three substances with the concentration above were added together into SOFaa media and constituted a modified medium (Modified SOFaa). The COC were cultured in control SOFaa media and modified SOFaa media, respectively. The results showed that modified SOFaa media increased the intracellular glutathione concentration of matured oocytes, blastocyst rates and total cell numbers and cell numbers of inner cell mass per blastocyst compared with the control. Supplementing of GTP, IGF-I and glucose synchronously to maturation media can increase the intracellular GSH concentration of oocytes after in vitro maturation, and improve the embryo development and blastocyst quality in bovine.

Keywords

• blastocyst quality
• embryo development
• in vitro culture
• in vitro maturation