Abstract
Purpose
Studies in bovine and porcine have indicated that melatonin (MT) could induce meiotic maturation of immature oocytes in vitro. The object of the current study was to investigate if MT could ameliorate human oocytes maturation during rescue in vitro maturation (IVM).
Methods
Two hundred seventy eight germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes and 451 (MI) metaphase I oocytes were vitrified, thawed and then matured in vitro. All the oocytes were randomly allocated into six groups in which the oocytes were cultured in medium supplemented with different concentrations of MT (0, 10−2, 1, 102, 104, 106 nM) and nuclear maturation was evaluated at 6 h, 12 h, 18 h, 24 h and 48 h of culture.
Results
The optimal MT concentration for both GV and MI oocytes was 1 nM. At 24 h of culture, nuclear maturation rate of MI oocytes cultured in 1 nM MT medium was significantly higher than other groups (P < 0.05); Nuclear maturation rate of GV oocytes cultured in 1 nM MT medium was also significantly higher than the control group (P < 0.05). On the other hand, decreased nuclear maturation rate was observed in the high MT concentration group (106 nM).
Conclusions
The current study demonstrated that low concentration of exogenous MT could ameliorate nuclear maturation of human oocyte during rescue IVM, while high concentration of MT presented negative effects.
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The current study is funded by Major Program of Key Medical Science Project of Henan Province (Funding Number:201001010).
Capsule Low concentration of exogenous melatonin could ameliorate nuclear maturation of human oocyte during rescue IVM, while high concentration of melatonin presented negative effects.
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Wei, D., Zhang, C., Xie, J. et al. Supplementation with low concentrations of melatonin improves nuclear maturation of human oocytes in vitro. J Assist Reprod Genet 30, 933–938 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-013-0021-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-013-0021-2