Sun Wu-Sheng, Jang Hoon, Park Mi-Ryung, Oh Keon Bong, Lee Haesun, Hwang Seongsoo, Xu Li-Jie, Hwang In-Sul, Lee Jeong-Woong
Animal Biotechnology Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration, Jeollabuk-do 55365, Korea.
Biotherapeutics Translational Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Daejeon 34141, Korea.
Antioxidants (Basel). 2021 May 27;10(6):860. doi: 10.3390/antiox10060860.
Oxidative stress has been suggested to negatively affect oocyte and embryo quality and developmental competence, resulting in failure to reach full term. In this study, we investigated the effect of N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), a cell-permeating antioxidant, on developmental competence and the quality of oocytes and embryos upon supplementation (0.1-10 mM) in maturation and culture medium in vitro using slaughterhouse-derived oocytes and embryos. The results show that treating oocytes with 1.0 mM NAC for 8 h during in vitro maturation attenuated the intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) ( < 0.05) and upregulated intracellular glutathione levels ( < 0.01) in oocytes. Interestingly, we found that NAC affects early embryonic development, not only in a dose-dependent, but also in a stage-specific, manner. Significantly ( < 0.05) decreased cleavage rates (90.25% vs. 81.46%) were observed during the early stage (days 0-2), while significantly ( < 0.05) increased developmental rates (38.20% vs. 44.46%) were observed during the later stage (from day 3) of embryonic development. In particular, NAC supplementation decreased the proportion of apoptotic blastomeres significantly ( < 0.05), resulting in enhanced hatching capability and developmental rates during the in vitro culture of embryos. Taken together, our results suggest that NAC supplementation has beneficial effects on bovine oocytes and embryos through the prevention of apoptosis and the elimination of oxygen free radicals during maturation and culture in vitro.
氧化应激被认为会对卵母细胞和胚胎质量以及发育能力产生负面影响，导致无法足月妊娠。在本研究中，我们使用屠宰场来源的卵母细胞和胚胎，研究了细胞渗透性抗氧化剂N-乙酰-L-半胱氨酸（NAC）在体外成熟和培养基中添加（0.1 - 10 mM）时对卵母细胞和胚胎发育能力及质量的影响。结果表明，在体外成熟过程中用1.0 mM NAC处理卵母细胞8小时，可降低卵母细胞内的活性氧（ROS）水平（<0.05）并上调细胞内谷胱甘肽水平（<0.01）。有趣的是，我们发现NAC不仅以剂量依赖的方式，而且以阶段特异性的方式影响早期胚胎发育。在早期（第0 - 2天）观察到卵裂率显著降低（90.25%对81.46%，<0.05），而在胚胎发育后期（从第3天开始）观察到发育率显著提高（38.20%对44.46%，<0.05）。特别是，添加NAC显著降低了凋亡卵裂球的比例（<0.05），从而提高了胚胎体外培养期间的孵化能力和发育率。综上所述，我们的结果表明，添加NAC通过在体外成熟和培养过程中预防细胞凋亡和消除氧自由基，对牛卵母细胞和胚胎具有有益作用。
