In vitro maturation of the canine oocyte

Abstract

This research examines culture techniques to improve nuclear maturation of canine oocytes in vitro.The primary objective of these experiments was to test individual;1)estradiol or progesterone,2)FSH,3)eCG,4)LH,5)L-cysteine,6) arachidonic acid,effects and varying lengths of culture on IVM of canine oocytes. The effects of the individual treatment media was compared to control media containing no supplement. For all experiments,the oocytes were collected from bitches undergoing ovariohysterectomies.Nuclear maturation assessment used Hoechst 33342 fluores- cent stain.In total,8,536 oocytes were examined in these experiments.A signifi- cant (p<0.05)improvement for maturation rates of oocytes to metaphase II was obtained when they were cultured for 96 hours with rFSH.All other media supple- ments tested did not significantly increase maturation of canine oocytes.For future canine oocyte nuclear maturation,rFSH should be used,probably,in conjunction with other supplements.