Abstract
Objectives: The current study aimed to investigate the in vitro effects of physiologic concentration of adiponectin in follicular fluid of pre-ovulatory bovine ovarian follicles on: 1) the bovine oocyte maturation and the early developmental rates of bovine embryos in vitro; 2) the expression profiles of some developmentally important marker genes in the bovine cumulus cells and oocytes. Materials and Methods: The cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were aspirated from abattoir ovaries and cultured in vitro in the presence/absence of the recombinant human (rh) adiponectin (5 μg/mL) and used for real time RT-QPCR and in vitro embryo production assays. Results: Adiponection had no significant effects on nuclear maturation and cumulus expansion rates (p > 0.05). The expression levels of hyaluronic synthase 2 gene (Has2) was significantly higher in the adiponection group compared to the control group (p = 0.014). However, the early embryonic development was not affected significantly in the presence of adiponectin. Adiponectin did not change the expression rates of adiponectin receptors or other markers of oocyte competence. Also, the expression rates of two important oocyte secreted factors (OSFs), bone morphogenetic protein 15 (Bmp15) and growth/differentiation factor 9 (Gdf9) were not affected (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Adiponection did not affect the bovine oocyte developmental competence and early embryo development in spite of a significant increase in the expression level of Has2 gene, a biomarker of the future oocyte developmental competence.
Highlights
It has been well accepted that reproductive performance is strongly associated with nutrition in different farm animals [1]
Our findings demonstrated that rh adiponectin at physiological concentrations had no significant effects on bovine oocyte nuclear maturation and degree of cumulus cell expansion
Maillard et al [14] reported that supplementation of in vitro maturation medium with rh adiponectin had no significant effects on cumulus expansion or nuclear maturation rates of the bovine oocytes derived from small follicles, or the 48 hours cleavage and day 8 embryo development rates
Summary
It has been well accepted that reproductive performance is strongly associated with nutrition in different farm animals [1]. Both chronic over- or under-nutrition has been demonstrated to result in reproductive failure [1]. Adipose tissues synthesize and secret several factors (adipokines) which act at various levels to control male and female reproductive functions [2]. Adiponectin, as one of the adipokines, is the most abundant protein secreted from adipose tissues [3,4]. Previous studies have clearly shown that adiponectin and its receptors are expressed by follicular cells (granulosa and theca cells), the oocyte and the corpus luteum in several species. The adiponectin accumulates in the follicular fluid from a local source and/or from circulation [5]
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