The Jeju Black Cattle (JBC) are a type of traditional Korean native cattle with a characteristic black fur that covers the entire body. Semen analysis is the most commonly used procedure to evaluate male fertility potential. This study was to evaluate the quality of 10 JBC bulls belonging to Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Promotion Institute. [JBC A∼J grade]. The freezing medium (20% egg yolk plus 20% triladyl) was added in semen sample to a final concentration of 100×106 sperm/ml. For sperm cooling, diluted semen was filled in 0.5 ml plastic straws and then kept in refrigerator at 4°C for 2 h. They were placed in 7 cm over liquid nitrogen (LN2) vapor for 10 min and then directly plunged into LN2 for storage. Thawing was done by transferring the frozen straws into water bath at 37°C for 30 sec for analysis. The sperm motility, vitality and morphology in each group was assessed using the Sperm Analysis Imaging System (SAIS Plus; Medical Supply Co, Ltd., Korea), eosin-nigrosin stain and diff-quik kit. There was no difference in the motility of the fresh groups (87.4 ~ 100%), while it was difference in the frozen-thawed groups (42.8 ~ 98.6%) (p<0.05). The best motility was shown in JBC-B (100/fresh and 98.6%/frozen-thawed). There was significant difference in the vitality of the fresh group (19.8 ~ 59.2%) and frozen-thawed group (21.2 ~ 49.8%)(p<0.05). The highest vitality was also shown in JBC-B (59.2/fresh and 49.8%/frozen-thawed). Morphologically, in fresh semen the highest normal ratio was indicated in JBC-E (90.9%) and in frozen-thawed group the highest was in JBC-C (90.2%). These results demonstrated that the analysis including motility, vitality and morphology of fresh or frozen-thawed semen is valuable to select the high quality sperm using for reproduction.

Light Mineral Oil is a material generally used as an overlay covering microdrops of culture medium in petri dishes. Although Light Mineral Oil can protect the damage by oxidation in air, it can't completely protect the damage by evaporation and alteration of pH and osmolality in culture medium. To minimize the damage by evaporation and alteration of pH and osmolality, we assumed that Heavy Mineral Oil could be used as an alternative. Heavy Mineral Oil is high purity paraffin oil which has more viscosity and density than Light Mineral Oil, so it can prevent evaporation and maintain stable osmolality and pH in culture medium more than Light Mineral Oil. The objective of this study was to examine whether the effect of Heavy Mineral Oil is superior to the effect of Light Mineral Oil during in vitro cultivation of porcine oocytes. According to the data of repeated six experiments, survival and cleavage rate of porcine oocytes, and cell number of blastocysts were not significantly different between two groups. However, the in vitro development rate of porcine parthenogenetic embryo was significantly higher in Heavy Mineral Oil group than in Light Mineral Oil group (Light, 36.6% ± 3.9%; and Heavy, 52.1% ± 6.4%, p < 0.05). Thus, these results indicated that the treatment of Heavy Mineral Oil can improve the in vitro developmental capacity of porcine parthenogenetic embryos compared to Light Mineral Oil.

Preimplantation embryonic production in vitro is important in human assisted reproductive technology and animal embryo engineering. Icariin (ICA) is one type of flavonoids and a main component isolated from the stem leaf of Epimedium brevicornum. Flavonoids, which are among the best well-studied natural antioxidants, have been demonstrated to be active in clearing reactive oxygen species (ROS). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of ICA treatment during porcine oocyte in vitro aging and their in vitro developmental competency after parthenogenetic activation (PA). Porcine oocytes were matured in vitro for 44 h (control) and for an additional 24 h in the presence of 0, 5 μM ICA (aging, ICA-5), respectively. This study investigated the effects of ICA on nuclear maturation, ROS level, apoptosis index, and the developmental capacity of aged porcine oocytes. Oocyte survival was not different in aging group compared to control or ICA-5 group. The increased ROS level during in vitro aging was prevented in ICA-5 group, while GSH level was not decreased. The decrease of normal spindle formation during in vitro aging was prevented in ICA-5 group. After PA, although the cleavage rate was not different among treatment groups, the blastocyst formation was significantly higher in control and ICA-5 group than in aging group. However, there was significantly difference in the apoptotic index of the ICA-5 group, while it was no difference in the total cell number of the ICA-5 group. (p<0.05). Therefore, this result demonstrated that the ICA is an effective agent to prevent the deterioration during in vitro aging of porcine oocytes.

Generally, in vivo, primary oocytes are grown and matured into secondary oocytes in the ovarian follicles. Quality of the oocytes matured in vivo is higher than that of oocytes matured in vitro, indicating the importance of materializing the microenvironment of ovarian follicles for production of high quality oocyte. Therefore, we tried to mimic the stiffness of ovarian follicles using an agarose as a biocompatible natural polymer. Unfortunately, to date, there are no many reports on whether the quality of porcine oocytes can be increased effectively under the soft matrix. Accordingly, we tried to evaluate the effects of IVM using different mechanical properties of agarose substrate on developmental competence of porcine oocytes. Agarose substrate was constructed and cumulus-oocyte-complexes (COCs) retrieved from porcine medium antral follicles were matured on non-coated (control) culture dish or dishes coated with 1% and 2% (w/v) agarose substrate. Then, cumulus expansion, embryonic development after parthenogenetic activation, and gene expression level were analyzed and compared. As the results, significant increase in blastocyst formation and cumulus expansion were detected in COCs matured on 1% (w/v) agarose substrate compared with control. Moreover, oocytes of COCs matured on 1% (w/v) agarose substrate showed significantly higher BMP15 expression level compared with control. Pro-apoptotic gene BAX expression was significantly increased in oocytes of COCs matured on 2% (w/v) agarose substrate compared with control. In the glycolytic enzyme phosphofructokinase (PFKP) gene expression, cumulus cells of COCs matured on agarose substrate showed significantly higher PFKP expression than control while they showed significantly lower BAX expression than control. These results demonstrated that quality of porcine oocytes could be increased efficiently by the IVM of immature oocytes on the soft culture matrix using agarose.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of insulin and epidermal growth factor (EGF) in a in vitro growth (IVG) medium on oocyte growth, in vitro maturation (IVM) and embryonic development of pig oocytes derived from small antral follicles (SAF) less than 3 mm in diameter. SAF oocytes were cultured for 2 days to induce IVG in alpha-minimal essential medium supplemented with 1 mM dbcAMP and 15% (v/v) fetal bovine serum. After IVG culture, oocyte maturation was induced by culturing IVG oocytes in IVM medium for 44 h. IVM oocytes that extruded the first polar body were selected and induced for parthenogenesis (PA) by applying electric stimulus. SAF oocytes cultured under the insulin treatment showed a significantly increased (P < 0.05) nuclear maturation (73.8%) compared to those cultured with insulin and EGF (59.8%). After PA, the proportions of blastocysts based on the number of metaphase II oocytes were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in oocytes that were cultured for IVG with insulin, EGF, and insulin + EGF (32.4%, 35.2%, and 34.8%, respectively) than in control (22.9%). IVG oocytes treated with insulin showed an increased oocyte diameter (116.3 μm) compared to those treated with insulin and EGF (114.0 μm) (P < 0.05). Intra-oocyte GSH content significantly increased (1.07 pixels/oocyte) by insulin treatment during IVG compared to that of oocytes treated with insulin + EGF (0.78 pixels/oocyte). These results demonstrate that IVG culture of SAF oocytes under insulin or/and EGF treatment supports oocyte maturation and improves embryonic development to the blastocyst stage after PA in pigs.

U0126 is a highly selective inhibitor of both MEK1 and MEK2, a type of MAPK/ERK kinase. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of U0126 treatment during in vitro maturation (IVM) on nuclear maturation, intra-oocyte glutathione content, and embryonic development after parthenogenesis (PA). U0126 (5 μM) was supplemented to IVM medium during the first 0 (control), 2, and 4 h. The basic medium used for IVM was medium-199 supplemented with 10% (v/v) porcine follicular fluid (standard), 0.6 mM cysteine, 0.91 mM pyruvate, 75 μg/ml kanamycin, and 1 μg/ml insulin. Immature pig oocytes were matured for 44 h and then oocytes reached metaphase II stage were electrically activated to induce PA. The in vitro culture medium for embryonic development was porcine zygote medium-3 containing 0.3% (w/v) fatty acid-free BSA. When immature oocytes were treated with U0126 during the first 0, 2, 4 h of IVM culture, nuclear maturation was significantly (P < 0.05) increased by the U0126 treatment for 4 h (96.2 ± 1.3%) compared to standard IVM (90.6 ± 2.1%). Cleavage of PA embryos was significantly increased by 4 h- treatment (90.6 ± 2.2%) compared to standard medium (83.9 ± 1.8%). In addition, blastocyst formation of PA embryos was significantly (P < 0.05) increased by the treatment for 4 h (55.8 ± 5.7%) compared to 2 h (38.1 ± 6.1%). The glutathione contents in IVM oocytes were not altered by the U0126 treatments for 0, 2, and 4 h (1.28 ± 0.10, 1.16 ± 0.09, and 1.10 ± 0.09, respectively). Our results demonstrated that 5 μM U0126 treatment during the first 4 h of IVM showed positive effects on nuclear maturation, cleavage, and embryonic development in pigs.

The citrus flavonoid hesperetin has various pharmacological actions, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activities. The purpose of this study is to confirm whether the treatment of hesperetin can protect the oocyte from in vitro aging. Porcine oocytes were matured in vitro for 44 h (control) and for an additional 24 h in the presence of 0, 1, 10, 100, and 250 μM hesperetin (aging, H-1, H-10, H-100 and H-250, respectively). This study investigated the effect of different concentration of hesperetin on maturation, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, apoptosis index, and the developmental capacity of aging porcine oocytes. In the results, the percentage of cleaved oocytes that reached to the blastocyst stage of H-100 group (37.9 ± 1.1%) was similar to control (38.1 ± 0.8%), and also significantly higher than other aging groups (23.2 ± 0.8%; H-1, 19.7 ± 1.3%; H-10, 26.7 ± 0.6%; and H-250, 18.4 ± 1.6%.)(p<0.05). The H-100 group was significantly decreased ROS activity, and increased the level of glutathione (GSH) and expression of the antioxidant genes (PRDX5, NFE2L, SOD1 and SOD2) compared to the aging group. The H-100 groups prevented aberrant spindle organization and chromosomal misalignment, blocked the decrease in the level of phosphorylated-p44/42 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and increased the mRNA expression of cytoplasmic maturation factor genes (GDF9, CCNB1, BMP15 and MOS). Also, it was confirmed that the H-100 group expressed higher level of estrogen receptor than the aging group. Therefore, this result indicated that hesperetin is an effective agent to protect from the oxidative stress during in vitro aging of porcine oocytes.

The national natural monument of Korea, Jeju Black Cattle (JBC), it is a native species with unique blood line. This cattle breed needs mass production and industrialization to further improve and preserve their characteristics. This study was to examine whether there were differences in in vitro developmental rates according to body weight (<300, 300 ~ 350, 350 ~ 400 and >400 kg) and grade (1++, 1+, 1, 2 and 3), and oocyte donors or non-donors. As a method of IVM, groups of ten cumulus oocyte complexes (COCs) were cultured in 50 μl droplets of maturation medium (TCM199 supplemented with 10% FBS, 0.2 mM sodium pyruvate, 1 μg/ml follicle-stimulating hormone, 1 μg/ml estradiol-17β) under mineral oil at 38.8℃ in an incubator with a 5% CO2 atmosphere for 22 to 24 h. For IVF, 44 ul IVF drop contained 10 oocytes with sperm concentration of 1 × 106 cells/ml, and then 2 μl heparin and 2 μl PHE (20 μM peicillamine, 10 μM hypotaurine, 2 μM epinephrine) were added. For IVC, after 44±2 h of incubation, cleaved embryos were incubated in CR1aa medium containing 3 mg/ml FAF-BSA until day 4 at 38.8℃ in a 5% CO2 incubator. Embryos were then cultured in CR1aa medium containing 10% FBS until day 8. As a result, in vitro development rates were the highest in 350 ~ 400 kg body weight group and in 1++ grade group than other groups (p<0.05). However, there was no difference in in vitro developmental capacity of classified donor and non-donor oocyte groups. This result demonstrated that the better in vitro developmental capacity was obtained in high level originated oocyte groups (350 ~ 400kg, 1++ grade) than in others, while there was no different in donor types.

Poor embryo quality and low blastocyst formation have been major limitations in establishment of cloned embryonic stem cells and production of cloned animals through somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Aggregation of embryos is a promising method for improving developmental competence of blastocysts. The aim of this study was to improve the blastocyst formation and the quality of parthenogenetic (PA) pig embryos by the aggregation of blastomeres at the 4-cell stage that were cultured in various type of culture dishes with or without phytohemagglutinin (PHA). The PA embryos were produced by the general method of our laboratory. On Day 2 after PA, the zona pellucida of 4 cell-stage embryos were removed by treatment with 0.5% (wt/vol) pronase solution. The 3x zona-free blastomere (ZFB) were randomly distributed in each of the following treatments for aggregation. ZFB were cultured for 5 days at 39℃ in an atmosphere 5% CO2, 5% O2, and 90% N2. In Experiment 1, effect of culture dishes on the aggregation efficiency and developmental competence of PA embryos were investigated. ZFB were cultured on non-coated (control) culture dish or dishes coated with 1% (wt/vol) agarose substrate (AS) or Well of the Well in dishes coated with 1% (wt/vol) agarose substrate (WAS). The ZFB cultured in WAS showed significantly higher (P<0.05) aggregation (81.2%) than AS and control (21.6-45.5%). The mean cell number in blastocysts derived from AS and WAS (81.4-89.3 cells/blastocyst) was significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of control (63.8 cells/blastocyst). In Experiment 2, effects of 150 ug/ml PHA treatment on the aggregation efficiency and developmental competence of embryos were investigated. The ZFB cultured in AS with PHA showed a higher (P<0.05) aggregation rate (90.0%) than that in AS without PHA, control with PHA, and control (39.2%, 57.9% and 17.5%, respectively). In conclusion, aggregation of porcine ZFB treated with PHA and agarose substrate could be a useful technique for producing improving blastocyst development with increased mean cell number of blastocysts in pigs.

In our previous studies, the cardiac xenotransplantation from an alpha-1,3-galactosyltransferase knockout pig (GT-MCP-MCP) to cynomolgus monkeys showed a mean survival of 38 days. The objective of this study is to genetically upgrade the GT-MCP-MCP pig, to further enhance membrane cofactor protein (MCP) expression and to express an endothelial specific thrombomodulin (TBM). MCP is a complement regulatory protein and TBM is a coagulation inhibitor. As the dicistronic cassette for wild-type-based MCP and TBM concurrent expressions does not show any increase of MCP, we optimized the MCP codon usage (mMCP) and substituted mMCP for MCP. When the mMCP-TBM cassette was transfected to HeLa cells, we were able to find an increased expression of MCP and endothelial cell-specific TBM expression. The cassette was then transfected into ear-skin fibroblasts isolated from one-month-old #23-4 of a GT-MCP-MCP pig, and the cell populations expressing MCP were obtained by MACS cell sorting. We performed a single cell culture of the selected cells, and obtained clones over expressing 90% MCP. The cells of a clone were used as a donor for nuclear transfer and generated GT-MCP/-MCP/mMCP/TBM pig. The transgenic pig was confirmed to be carrying the cells expressing MCP and functioning as an inhibitor against the cytotoxic effect of normal monkey serum, comparable with donor cells. Thus, we believe that the GT-MCP/-MCP/mMCP/TBM transgenic pig would be potential for the prolongation of xenograft survival in the recipients.

The transcription factor POU5F1, also known as OCT4 plays critical roles in maintaining pluripotency during early mammalian embryonic development and in embryonic stem cells. It is important to establish an OCT4 promoter region-based reporter system to study pluripotency. However, there is still a lack of information about the porcine OCT4 upstream region. To improve our understanding of the porcine OCT4 regulatory region, we identified conserved regions in the porcine OCT4 promoter upstream region by sequence-based comparative analysis using various mammalian genome sequences. The similarity of nucleotide sequences in the 5' upstream region was low among mammalian species. However, the OCT4 promoter and four regulatory regions, including distal and proximal enhancer elements, had high similarity. The putative transcription factor binding sites in the Oct4 5' upstream region nucleotide sequences from mice and pigs also differed. Some of these genes are related to pluripotency, and further research will allow us to better understand the differences in species-specific pluripotency. Next, a functional analysis of the porcine OCT4 promoter region was conducted. Luciferase reporter assay results indicated that the porcine OCT4 distal enhancer and proximal enhancer were highly activated in mouse embryonic stem cells and embryonic carcinoma cells, respectively. Similar to OCT4 upstream-based reporter systems derived from other species, the porcine OCT4 upstream region-based reporter constructs showed exclusive expression patterns depending on the state of pluripotency. This work provides basic information about the porcine OCT4 upstream region and various porcine OCT4 fluorescence reporter constructs, which can be applied to study species-specific pluripotency in early embryo development and the establishment of embryonic stem cells in pigs. This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2017R1D1A1B03032256).

Successful cryopreservation of bovine oocytes is a very important technology for research and commercial applications. However, the survival and development rate of vitrified-thawed oocytes is lower than non-vitrified oocytes. Hydroxypropyl Cellulose supplementation (HPCs) has extremely high viscosity, which permits transitions to a glassy state at low temperatures. This characteristics of HPCs have been reported to help the survival of human oocytes. In this study, we investigated the survival rate, fertilization rate and ROS levels to confirm the effect of cryoprotectant solutions with HPC for oocyte vitrification in bovine. For vitrification, bovine MII oocytes were pretreated with EG10 (added 0, 10, 50 and 100 ㎍/㎖ HPC) for 5 min, exposed to EG30 (added 0, 10, 50 and 100 ㎍/㎖ HPC) for 30 sec, and then directly plunged into LN2. Thawing was taken by 4-step procedures [1 M sucrose and 10% FBS added D-PBS (SFD) -> 0.5 M SFD -> 0.25 M SFD -> 0.125 M SFD] for 1 min, respectively. After thawing, oocytes were washed with TL-HEPES, incubated in a droplet of previous cultured IVM medium for 1 h to recover. IVF drop (44 ㎕) contained 10 vitrified-thawed oocytes with sperm concentration of 1 × 106 cells ㎖, and then 2 ㎕ heparin and 2 ㎕ PHE were added. At 2 days after IVF, cleaved embryos were cultured in CR1aa + 3 mg/mL FAF-BSA for 48 h and cultured in CR1aa + 10% FBS for 4 days. In the results, in vitro survival rate of bovine vitrified-thawed MII oocyte was significantly higher in 50 (85.5%) and 100 ㎍/㎖ (80.2%) HPC groups than 0 (71.2%) and 10 ㎍/㎖ (71.3%) groups (p<0.05). The ROS level was lower in 50 ㎍/㎖ HPC group than in control group. After in vitro fertilization, cleavage rate and blastocyst development rate were not significantly different among treatment groups. Therefore, these results indicated that HPC treatment has a positive effect on the survival of vitrified-thawed bovine oocytes.

To improve survival rates of vitrified pig oocytes, the treatment of cytoskeletal stabilizer on an appropriate time is one of the possible approaches. However, the exact treatment timing and effect of cytoskeletal stabilizer such as cytochalasin B (CB) is not well known during oocyte vitrification procedures. Thus, the present study was conducted to determine optimal treatment timing of CB during vitrification and warming procedures. In experiment 1, the survival rates of the post-warming pig oocytes were analyzed by fluorescein diacetate (FDA) assay with 4 classifications. In results, post-warming oocytes showed significantly (p<0.05) decreased number of alive oocytes (31.8% vs. 86.4%) compared to fresh control. In detail, the significant difference (p<0.05) was found only in strong fluorescence (18.2% vs. 70.5%) not in intermediate fluorescence groups (13.6% vs. 15.9%). In experiment 2, CB was treated before (CB-Vitri) and after (Vitri-CB) vitrification. In results, group of Vitri-CB showed significantly (p<0.05) higher (91.6%) survival rates compared to group of CB-Vitri (83.7%), significantly (p<0.05) and comparable with group of Vitri Control (88.7%) by morphological inspection. In FDA assay results, group of Vitri-CB showed significantly (p<0.05) higher (44.2%) survival rates compared to groups of CB-Vitri (36.7%) and Vitri Control (35.1%). In conclusion, the increased survival rates of post-warming pig oocyte treated with Vitri-CB method are firstly described here. The main finding of present study is that the CB treatment during recovery could be helpful to refresh the post-warming pig oocyte resulting its improved survival rates.