Activity of maturation promoting factor in pig oocytes after microinjection and serial transfer of maturing cytoplasm.

Microinjection of 120 pl homologous or heterologous (mouse) maturing cytoplasm into immature pig oocytes resulted in germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) and chromosome condensation (CC) after 8 h of culture. In contrast, nearly all control oocytes remained at the germinal vesicle stage. Immature cytoplasm did not induce nuclear maturation of recipient oocytes when injected. The cytoplasm of the oocytes injected with maturing cytoplasm preserved the capacity to cause GVBD in the second recipients. These results suggest that the level of injected maturation promoting factor (MPF) must rise before GVBD can occur. When the pig oocytes injected with 120 pl of mouse maturing cytoplasm were cultured in cycloheximide for 8 h, the presence of GVBD was dramatically reduced. Thus, in pig oocytes the increase in active MPF up to the effective concentration requires protein synthesis.