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Meiotic maturation of oocytes recovered from the ovaries of Indian big cats at postmortem

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Abstract

In order to increase the available sources of genetic material for endangered members of the great cat family, this study was designed to assess the meiotic competence of oocytes recovered from postmortem ovaries of the Indian leopard, tiger and lion. The average number of oocytes that were recovered per ovary was 11.0 ± 5.0, 11.0 ± 3.5 and 21.3 ± 8.8 for tiger, lion and leopard, respectively. The proportion of culture grade oocytes for tiger, lion and leopard were 72.7, 78.8 and 71.9%, respectively. The culture grade oocytes were matured in tissue culture medium 199 modified with sodium bicarbonate supplemented with 0.3% BSA (fatty acid-free) (w/v), 10 μg/ml FSH, 6 IU/ml LH, 1 μg/ml 17β-estradiol, 0.36 mM pyruvate, 2.2 mM calcium lactate, 2.0 mM l-glutamine, 100 IU/ml penicillin and 0.1 mg/ml streptomycin in an incubator with 5% CO2 under humidified air at 38.5°C for 36 h. After in vitro maturation, 56.3, 53.8 and 58.7% of the tiger, lion and leopard oocytes, respectively, were matured. The proportion of oocytes that extruded first polar body was significantly higher when the oocytes were collected from the animals of less than 15 yr of age compared to above 15 yr. These findings suggest that the oocytes recovered from ovaries of tiger, lion and leopard immediately postmortem can be successfully matured to MII stage.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants from the Central Zoo Authority, Government of India and CSIR, Government of India. The authors thank the Chief Wildlife Warden of Andhra Pradesh and the Director of Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad. The authors are grateful to Dr. Daniel G. Miller, former Assistant Professor, College of Pharmacy, University of Minnesota, USA for the critical review of the manuscript.

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  1. Laboratory for Conservation of the Endangered Species (LaCONES), CSIR—Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB), Uppal Road, Hyderabad, 500 007, India

    Brahmasani Sambasiva Rao, Yelisetti Uma Mahesh, Komjeti Suman, Katari Venu Charan, Rhisita Nath & K Ramachander Rao

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  1. Brahmasani Sambasiva Rao
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  2. Yelisetti Uma Mahesh
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Correspondence to Brahmasani Sambasiva Rao.

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Editor: T. Okamoto

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Rao, B.S., Mahesh, Y.U., Suman, K. et al. Meiotic maturation of oocytes recovered from the ovaries of Indian big cats at postmortem. In Vitro Cell.Dev.Biol.-Animal 51, 19–25 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11626-014-9802-x

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