Abstract
Glyphosate, formulated as glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) including the best-known formulation Roundup, is the world's most widely used herbicide. During the last years, the growing and widespread use of GBHs has raised a great concern about the impact of environmental contamination on animal and human health including potential effect on reproductive systems. Using an in vitro model of pig oocyte maturation, we examined the biological impact of both glyphosate and Roundup on female gamete evaluating nuclear maturation, cytoplasmic maturation and developmental competence of oocytes, steroidogenic activity of cumulus cells as well as intracellular levels of glutathione (GSH) and ROS of oocytes. Our results indicate that although exposure to glyphosate and Roundup during in vitro maturation does not affect nuclear maturation and embryo cleavage, it does impair oocyte developmental competence in terms of blastocyst rate and cellularity. Moreover, Roundup at the same glyphosate-equivalent concentrations was shown to be more toxic than pure glyphosate, altering steroidogenesis and increasing oocyte ROS levels, thus confirming that Roundup adjuvants enhance glyphosate toxic effects and/or are biologically active in their side-effect and therefore should be considered and tested as active ingredients.
Highlights
Glyphosate (Gly), or N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine, is a non-selective herbicide widely used worldwide to control weeds[1]
When Cumulus‐ oocyte complexes (COCs) were matured in presence of Gly at 0, 5, 10, 100, 200 and 360 μg/mL or R at the same Gly-equivalent doses, no significant variations in the proportion of oocytes completing nuclear maturation showing a metaphase-II stage (MII) nuclear morphology were recorded (Table 1)
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of Gly and R exposure on female gamete using an in vitro model of pig oocyte maturation
Summary
Glyphosate (Gly), or N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine, is a non-selective herbicide widely used worldwide to control weeds[1]. The possible risk associated with Gly exposure to human and animal health is a matter of an intense public debate for both its potential carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects, including potential adverse effects on nervous, digestive, endocrine and reproductive s ystems[9,10,11,12,13,14] Findings of both in vitro and in vivo studies are conflicting and several authors concluded that Gly is safe at levels below regulatory permissible limits[15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22]. Gly (μg/mL) Penetration rate Monospermy rate Male pronuclear formation Oocytes (n°) Roundup (μg/mL Gly eq) Penetration rate Monospermy rate Male pronuclear formation Oocytes (n°)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
