166 EFFECTS OF LEPTIN AND IGF-1 ON PRE-IMPLANTATION DEVELOPMENT, DNA FRAGMENTATION, AND GENE EXPRESSION OF BOVINE EMBRYOS CULTURED IN VITRO

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Adequate regulatory proteins, growth factors, and hormones in in vitro embryo culture systems are important for improving the quality of embryos to a level similar to that in vivo conditions. The objective of this study was to define the effects of leptin, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), and their combination on embryonic development, apoptosis, and expression profiles of a panel of developmentally important genes. Presumptive zygotes (16–18 h post-insemination) were randomly assigned and cultured in control (no supplementation), 5 ng/mL leptin (Group I), 100 ng/mL IGF-1 (Group II), and 5 ng/mL leptin and 100 ng/mL IGF-1 (Group III), all supplemented with 10% FCS on Day 4. On Day 8, the embryos reaching blastocyst stage were randomly either fixed for determination of DNA-fragmented nuclei by using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase biotin-dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) or frozen for real-time relative quantitative RT-PCR analysis. The RT-PCR was performed to assess gene transcripts of glucose transporter-1 (Glut-1), heat shock protein 70.1 (Hsp70.1), interferon tau (IF-tau), insulin-like growth factor II receptor (IGF-IIr), desmosomal glycoprotein desmocollin III (DcIII), and DNA methyltransferase 3a (Dnmt3a). A total of 349, 322, 347, and 360 zygotes were used for the control group and Groups I, II, and III, respectively. Data were analyzed with a randomized complete block design and arcsine square root transformation of the dependent variables consisting of four treatments and six replicates. Cleavage rates were 79.5, 84.2, 87.3, and 82.4% for the control group and Groups I, II, and III, respectively, and only Group II was different from the control (P < 0.05). The percentages of embryos developed beyond the 8–16 cell stage were 44.2, 48.2, 49.0, and 50.7 for the control group and Groups I, II, and III, respectively, and Group III was different from the control (P < 0.05). Percentages of blastocyst development were 26.7, 29.6, 31.5, and 29.8, and the mean blastocyst cell numbers were 96.6, 98.6, 104.4, and 104.1 for the control group and Groups I, II, and III, respectively. The percentage of nuclei with fragmented DNA were 4.2, 3.3, 2.5, and 1.9 for the control group and Groups I, II, and III, respectively. Addition of IGF-1 and/or combination with leptin (Groups II and III) decreased the number of nuclei with fragmented DNA (P < 0.01) as compared to the control group. Although the expression of Glut1, DcIII, and Igf2r did not change among the groups, IF-tau and Dnmt3a were down-regulated in Group II. Hsp70 and IF-tau were up regulated in Group III. Results indicate that addition of IGF-I in culture media improved the cleavage rate; combination with leptin also improved the development rates to 8–16-cell-stage embryos, decreased the TUNEL-positive nuclei, and altered expression of some of the developmentally important genes.