Dong Yan-Wei, Qu He-Xuan, Wang Yan-Qiu, Qi Jia-Jia, Wei Hua-Kai, Sun Bo-Xing, Sun Hao, Liang Shuang
Department of Animals Sciences, College of Animal Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun130062, China.
Anim Biosci. 2025 Mar;38(3):431-443. doi: 10.5713/ab.24.0307. Epub 2024 Aug 26.
Oleanolic acid (OA) is a pentacyclic triterpenoid with antioxidant activity that can be an effective scavenger of free radicals in cells. This study was designed to investigate the effects of OA on porcine early embryo developmental competence in vitro and its possible mechanisms of action.
In the present study, parthenogenetically activated porcine embryos were used as models to assess the effects of OA on the in vitro developmental capacity of early porcine embryos in vitro. Zygotic genome activation, mitochondrial function, oxidative stress, cell proliferation and apoptosis in early porcine embryos were examined after supplementing the culture medium with 5 μM OA.
The results showed that 5 μM OA supplementation not only significantly increased the blastocyst diameter in early embryos on day 6 but also increased the total cell number of blastocysts. Furthermore, OA supplementation increased the blastocyst proliferation rate and decreased blastocyst apoptosis. Moreover, OA supplementation significantly increased the proportion of embryos that developed to the 4-cell stage after 48 h of in vitro culture and upregulated the expression of genes associated with zygotic genome activation (DPPA2 and ZSCAN4). Notably, OA alleviated oxidative stress by reducing the intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species and increasing the intracellular levels of reduced glutathione at the 4-cell stage and increased the activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase. Concurrently, OA significantly increased the mitochondrial membrane potential and intracellular adenosine 5'-triphosphate content.
These results suggest that OA promotes the in vitro developmental competence of parthenogenetically activated porcine embryos by reducing oxidative stress and improving mitochondrial function during in vitro culture and that OA may contribute to the efficiency of in vitro embryo production.
齐墩果酸（OA）是一种具有抗氧化活性的五环三萜类化合物，可有效清除细胞中的自由基。本研究旨在探讨OA对猪早期胚胎体外发育能力的影响及其可能的作用机制。
在本研究中，以孤雌激活的猪胚胎为模型，评估OA对猪早期胚胎体外发育能力的影响。在培养基中添加5 μM OA后，检测猪早期胚胎的合子基因组激活、线粒体功能、氧化应激、细胞增殖和凋亡情况。
结果表明，添加5 μM OA不仅显著增加了第6天早期胚胎的囊胚直径，还增加了囊胚的总细胞数。此外，添加OA提高了囊胚增殖率，降低了囊胚凋亡率。而且，添加OA显著增加了体外培养48 h后发育到4细胞阶段的胚胎比例，并上调了与合子基因组激活相关的基因（DPPA2和ZSCAN4）的表达。值得注意的是，OA在4细胞阶段通过降低细胞内活性氧水平和增加细胞内还原型谷胱甘肽水平来减轻氧化应激，并提高超氧化物歧化酶和过氧化氢酶的活性。同时，OA显著增加了线粒体膜电位和细胞内三磷酸腺苷含量。
这些结果表明，OA通过在体外培养过程中减轻氧化应激和改善线粒体功能来促进孤雌激活的猪胚胎的体外发育能力，并且OA可能有助于提高体外胚胎生产的效率。
