Somatic cell nuclear transfer of oocytes aspirated from postovulatory ovarian follicles of superovulated rabbits.

摘要

The study was conducted to evaluate if oocytes aspirated from postovulatory ovarian follicles of superovulated rabbits 14 h post-hCG administration could be efficiently used as ooplasm recipients for somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Within a common SCNT protocol, a comparison between oocytes recovered by direct aspiration (aspirated) from available ovarian follicles and oocytes flushed out from oviducts (flushed) was carried out. Results showed that the maturation and enucleation rates of aspirated oocytes were 70.7% and 69.2%, while flushed oocytes were 95.3% (p<0.01) and 83.6% (p<0.05), respectively. However, following enucleation of matured oocytes as ooplasm recipients for SCNT, no difference was recorded in fusion and cleavage rates, as well as blastocyst development from cleaved embryos or hatching of blastocysts between aspirated and flushed groups. Additionally, some matured aspirated and flushed oocytes were also used for immediate parthenogenetic activation and the resulting embryo development was not significantly different. It is suggested that the majority of oocytes aspirated from postovulatory ovarian follicles of superovulated rabbits 14 h post-hCG administration are matured and can be used directly as ooplasm recipients for SCNT, and the reconstructed embryos derived from these oocytes have similar in vitro developmental ability with those oocytes flushed from the oviducts.