α-solanine is toxic to human health by disturbing digestive and central nervous systems. However, little information has been focused on investigated with respect to α-solanine influence in mammal oocyte maturation and quality. In this study, we investigated the effects of α-solanine on oocyte maturation, quality and possible molecular mechanisms in a pig model. Porcine Cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were treated with increasing concentration (0, 1, 10, 20, 50 μM) of α-solanine subjected to further in vitro maturation culture. The result showed that α-solanine significantly inhibited cumulus cells expansion and increased oocyte death rates when the concentration of α-solanine more than 10 μM. After cell cycle and cytoskeleton analysis, the results showed that α-solanine (10 μM) disturbed meiotic resumption, increased abnormal spindle formation and cortical granules (CGs) distribution rates when compared with the untreated group. α-solanine (10 μM) triggered autophagy by increasing the expression of autophagy-related genes (LC3, ATG7, LAMP2) and accumulation of LC3-specific puncta (an autophagy maker). TUNEL staining assay showed that α-solanine significantly increased apoptosis in porcine oocytes confirmed by up-regulated the levels of BAX and CAPS3 genes. Further study revealed that exposure α-solanine (10 μM) to porcine oocytes induced ROS generation, reduced mitochondrial membrane potential. In addition, our results suggested that α-solanine (10 μM) significantly increased the levels of H3K36me3 and H3K27me3 in porcine oocytes. Taken together, these data indicated that α-solanine toxic impaired oocyte maturation and quality by inhibited cumulus cells expansion, increased abnormal spindle and CGs distribution rates, triggered autophagy/apoptosis occur, accumulated ROS, decreased mitochondrial membrane potential, and changed epigenetic modifications.

• Tao Lin(Department of Animal Science & Biotechnology, Research Center for Transgenic Cloned Pigs, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea)
• Reza K Oqani(Department of Animal Science & Biotechnology, Research Center for Transgenic Cloned Pigs, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea)
• Jae Eun Lee(Department of Animal Science & Biotechnology, Research Center for Transgenic Cloned Pigs, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea)
• So Yeon Kim(Department of Animal Science & Biotechnology, Research Center for Transgenic Cloned Pigs, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea)
• Dong Il Jin(Department of Animal Science & Biotechnology, Research Center for Transgenic Cloned Pigs, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea)