Abstract
When intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is performed in mice, isolation of sperm heads is usually performed prior to injections in order to increase the efficiency of the procedure. Consequently, the isolated sperm heads undergo an inevitable incubation in vitro. However, little is known about the effects of this incubation step on fertilization and embryo development following ICSI. When we incubated sperm heads at 37 °C, there was a significant time-dependent decrease in fertilization and blastocyst formation. Moreover, the DNA integrity of the sperm heads was maintained over 12 h incubation. Using assisted oocyte activation, these defects in fertilization and embryo development were rescued. Taken together, incubation of sperm heads following isolation can affect the oocyte-activating capacity of sperm thereby compromising fertilization and embryo development associated with ICSI.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful for the financial support provided by the National Natural Foundation of China (31071275 to QF Lyu, 81270749 to YP Kuang, 31101070 to WR Chai) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai, China (12ZR1416600 to Hui L, 11411950105 to YP Kuang). We also thank Yang HM and Miao CX for completing some of the experiments for this study.
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Hui Long, Sheng-Sheng Lu and Yan-Ping Kuang contributed equally to this work.
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Long, H., Lu, SS., Kuang, YP. et al. Incubation of sperm heads impairs fertilization and early embryo development following intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) by decreasing oocyte activation in mice. Biotechnol Lett 35, 1823–1829 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-013-1287-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-013-1287-2