Functional analysis of the effect of nobiletin on preimplantation bovine embryo development

Abstract

In vitro production of embryos (IVP) is a reproductive biotechnology widely used to increase the number of offspring from superior phenotypes, to treat infertility problems and also to address fundamental questions about metabolic pathways that modulate early embryonic development. However, IVP is a multifactorial process depending on extrinsic and intrinsic factors, at both cellular and molecular levels, to increase its efficiency. Still today the IVP procedure has limitations, considering that not all oocytes have the ability to reach the blastocyst. Although a successful in vitro maturation (IVM) involves a nuclear, cytoplasmic and molecular maturation, necessary for fertilization and further embryo development, the blastocyst rate do not overcome 30-40% in bovine. Thus, alteration in the dynamics of early embryo development, which coincides with the switch from maternal control to embryonic genome activation (EGA) on Day 4 post fertilization, may be partially responsible for reduced embryo yield. Furthermore, it has been suggested that apart from the origin of the oocyte, the increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the culture environment affecting EGA, there is also a complex network of signaling pathways responsible for cell division and differentiation and other events necessary for embryonic development, such as MAPK and PI3K/AKT...