Effect of in vivo oocyte aging on sperm chromatin decondensation in the golden hamster

Abstract

AbstractAged spontaneously activated hamster oocytes recovered from adult females 18 and 24 hours after ovulation were at the pronuclear stage. These oocytes and fresh controls were inseminated in vitro with capacitated hamster spermatozoa and observed with the phase‐contrast microscope. The percentage of fertilization in fresh control oocytes was 98%, as compared to 36% and 18% when the oocytes were recovered 18 and 24 hours after ovulation, respectively. The mean number of sperm decondensations per egg in control oocytes was 10, and in the aged ones it was 0.69 and 0.12 when the oocytes were recovered 18 and 24 hours after ovulation, respectively. When similarly treated oocytes were studied with scanning and transmission electron microscopy, it was found that the degree of gamete membrane fusion was greater than that observed with the phase‐contrast microscope, but that most of the spermatozoa failed to decondense the chromatin. We suggest that parthenogenetic oocytes at the pronuclear stage are in a similar stage of the cell cycle as in fertilized eggs, in which the cytoplasm does not have the ability to decondense the sperm chromatin.