Spontaneous cytosolic calcium oscillations driven by inositol trisphosphate occur during in vitro maturation of mouse oocytes.

Immature mouse oocytes undergo spontaneous meiotic maturation when released from antral follicles into culture media. The first sign of meiotic resumption is germinal vesicle breakdown (GVB). Cytosolic free Ca2+ was measured in mouse oocytes during spontaneous maturation by monitoring fluorescence of indo-1 or fluo-3. The majority of oocytes showed a series of Ca2+ oscillations that continued for 1-3 h. Repetitive Ca2+ increases occurred every 1-3 min and lasted for 10-60 s. The Ca2+ oscillations appeared to be caused by an increase in inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (InsP3) because once they ceased, similar oscillations were triggered by injection of exogenous InsP3. Also, injection of the InsP3 receptor antagonist heparin (final concentration, 100 micrograms/ml) blocked the spontaneous Ca2+ oscillations. In contrast, Ca2+ oscillations induced by thimerosal were not inhibited by heparin. Treating oocytes with media containing 20 microM BAPTA/AM abolished Ca2+ oscillations in oocytes but did not affect the rate of GVB. The data show that cytosolic Ca2+ oscillations apparently caused by polyphosphoinositide turnover occur during mammalian oocyte maturation. However, the spontaneous oscillations do not appear to trigger GVB. Also, the data indicate that there are two separate Ca2+ release mechanisms in mouse oocytes, one sensitive to InsP3, the other to thimerosal.