Follicular fluid secretome enhances the meiotic competence of in vitro matured equine oocytes, but not the developmental competence of zygotes after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
Abstract: In vitro embryo production is widely used in equine clinical reproduction; however, its efficiency remains suboptimal due to the undermined developmental competence of in vitro-matured oocytes. In this work, we evaluated the effect of mare preovulatory follicular fluid (PFF) secretome supplementation during in vitro maturation (IVM) of equine oocytes recovered post-mortem. Secretome was isolated from PFF and was added to the IVM medium at concentrations of 20 µg/ml (S20) or 40 µg/ml (S40). The percentage of mature oocytes, as well as embryo cleavage, blastocyst development, and gene expression of embryos produced by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) was analysed. Gene expression of embryos at day 7 post-ICSI was analysed by real-time quantitative PCR. We observed that the addition of PFF secretome at 40 µg/ml (S40) significantly increased oocyte maturation rates (Control vs. S40: 35.4 ± 3.6 % vs. 46.5 ± 2.7 %; mean % ± SEM; P < 0.05) and reduced the proportion of degenerated oocytes after maturation (Control vs. S40: 58.6 ± 4.2 % vs. 44.0 ± 4.8 %; P < 0.05) compared to the control group. However, no effects were observed on cleavage or blastocyst rates, nor on the expression of the candidate genes studied, namely BEX2, FABP3, ODC, MOBKL3, HSP90AA1, BAX and BCL2. In conclusion, supplementation of PFF secretome during IVM at 40 µg/ml, but not at 20 µg/ml, improves the meiotic competence of post-mortem retrieved equine oocytes but does not influence their developmental competence or the expression of the selected genes in the resulting embryos.
Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2025-06-20 PubMed ID: 40554809DOI: 10.1016/j.anireprosci.2025.107946Google Scholar: Lookup
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- Journal Article
Cite This Article
APA
Luis-Calero M, Marinaro F, Muñoz-García CC, Fernández-Hernández P, Ortiz-Rodríguez JM, Fernández-González R, Pericuesta E, Gutiérrez-Adán A, González-Fernández L, Macías-García B.
(2025).
Follicular fluid secretome enhances the meiotic competence of in vitro matured equine oocytes, but not the developmental competence of zygotes after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
Anim Reprod Sci, 279, 107946.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anireprosci.2025.107946 Publication
Researcher Affiliations
- Departamento de Medicina Animal, Grupo de Investigación Medicina Interna Veterinaria (MINVET), Instituto Universitario de Investigación INBIO G+C, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Extremadura, Av. de la Universidad s/n, Cáceres 10004, Spain.
- Departamento de Reproducción Animal, INIA-CSIC, Av. Puerta de Hierro 18, Madrid 28040, Spain.
- Departamento de Medicina Animal, Grupo de Investigación Medicina Interna Veterinaria (MINVET), Instituto Universitario de Investigación INBIO G+C, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Extremadura, Av. de la Universidad s/n, Cáceres 10004, Spain.
- Hospital Clínico Veterinario, Universidad de Extremadura, Av. de la Universidad s/n, Cáceres 10004, Spain.
- Department of Veterinary Medical Sciences (DIMEVET), University of Bologna, Via Tolara di Sopra 50, Bologna, Ozzano dell'Emilia 40064, Italy.
- Departamento de Reproducción Animal, INIA-CSIC, Av. Puerta de Hierro 18, Madrid 28040, Spain.
- Departamento de Reproducción Animal, INIA-CSIC, Av. Puerta de Hierro 18, Madrid 28040, Spain.
- Departamento de Reproducción Animal, INIA-CSIC, Av. Puerta de Hierro 18, Madrid 28040, Spain.
- Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular y Genética, Grupo de Investigación Señalización Intracelular y Tecnología de la Reproducción (SINTREP), Instituto Universitario de Investigación INBIO G+C, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Extremadura, Av. de la Universidad s/n, Cáceres 10004, Spain.
- Departamento de Medicina Animal, Grupo de Investigación Medicina Interna Veterinaria (MINVET), Instituto Universitario de Investigación INBIO G+C, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Extremadura, Av. de la Universidad s/n, Cáceres 10004, Spain. Electronic address: bemaciasg@unex.es.
MeSH Terms
- Animals
- Horses / physiology
- Horses / embryology
- Sperm Injections, Intracytoplasmic / veterinary
- Female
- Follicular Fluid / chemistry
- In Vitro Oocyte Maturation Techniques / veterinary
- Oocytes / physiology
- Oocytes / drug effects
- Meiosis / drug effects
- Meiosis / physiology
- Secretome
- Zygote / physiology
- Zygote / drug effects
- Embryonic Development
- Embryo Culture Techniques / veterinary
Conflict of Interest Statement
Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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