College of Animal Science and Technology, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, 266109, People's Republic of China.
College of Life Science, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, 266109, People's Republic of China.
In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Anim. 2019 Aug;55(7):548-558. doi: 10.1007/s11626-019-00373-0. Epub 2019 Jul 16.
Recently, the mean maternal age at first birth has been continuing to increase. The decline in the age-related fertility is due to the reduction in the number and the quality of the oocyte. An elevation in intra-ovarian reactive oxygen species (ROS) is correlated with the increase in maternal age, and the oxidative stress is involved in the decline in oocyte quality. Although β-carotene, a very effective quencher of ROS, has been found to have the beneficial contribution to the ovarian development and steroidogenesis, it is unknown the effect of β-carotene on the oocyte development especially oocyte maturation. This investigation aimed to explore the beneficial contribution of β-carotene on oocyte maturation under oxidative stress and the underlying mechanism. We found that the oxidative stress induced by ROS reagent Rosup inhibited oocyte development/maturation and parthenogenetic activation which could be dramatically rescued by β-carotene (57.1 ± 4.7% vs 78.9 ± 3.8%; p < 0.05) in vitro. The underlying mechanisms include that β-carotene not only reduces ROS formation and cell apoptosis, but also it can restore actin expression, cortical granule-free domain (CGFD) formation, mitochondria homogeneous distribution, and nuclear maturation. The data suggest that β-carotene acts as a potential antioxidant in the oocyte. Therefore, the findings from this investigation provide the fundamental 7knowledge for using β-carotene as an antioxidant to improve the oocyte quality and even the ovarian function.
最近，初产妇的平均年龄持续上升。与年龄相关的生育能力下降是由于卵母细胞数量和质量的减少。卵巢内活性氧（ROS）的升高与母体年龄的增加有关，氧化应激与卵母细胞质量的下降有关。虽然β-胡萝卜素是一种非常有效的 ROS 淬灭剂，已被发现对卵巢发育和类固醇生成有有益的贡献，但β-胡萝卜素对卵母细胞发育，特别是卵母细胞成熟的影响尚不清楚。本研究旨在探讨β-胡萝卜素在氧化应激下对卵母细胞成熟的有益贡献及其潜在机制。我们发现，ROS 试剂 Rosup 诱导的氧化应激抑制了卵母细胞的发育/成熟和孤雌激活，而β-胡萝卜素（57.1±4.7%比 78.9±3.8%；p<0.05）可显著挽救这种作用。其潜在机制包括β-胡萝卜素不仅减少 ROS 的形成和细胞凋亡，还可以恢复肌动蛋白的表达、皮质颗粒无区（CGFD）的形成、线粒体均匀分布和核成熟。数据表明，β-胡萝卜素在卵母细胞中起抗氧化剂的作用。因此，本研究的结果为使用β-胡萝卜素作为抗氧化剂来改善卵母细胞质量甚至卵巢功能提供了基础。
