Diploid oocyte formation and tetraploid embryo development induced by cytochalasin B in bovine.

Tetraploid embryos are a useful model for postimplantation development of polyploidy cells, and tetraploid cells are an advantage in studies for chimeras yielding offspring completely derived from embryo stem cells or induced pluripotent cells. This study was designed to investigate the effects of cytochalasin B (CB) on bovine oocyte meiosis, and to induce the formation of diploid oocytes and tetraploid embryos. The results showed that: (1) incubation of oocytes in CB at ≥2.0 μg/mL concentrations for 24 h significantly decreased oocyte maturation and the matured oocytes' haploid composition. Over 50% of the CB-treated oocytes did not expel PB1 (non-PB1), and most of the non-PB1 oocytes contained 2n (60) chromosomes. (2) Pretreatment of oocytes with CB at concentrations of 7.5 and 15 μg/mL for 10 h significantly decreased oocyte maturation. Posttreatment of oocytes with CB resulted in most of the oocytes containing 2n chromosomes. (3) The parthenogenetic blastocysts (25-28%) derived from the non-PB1 oocytes of posttreatment group was significantly higher than that from pretreatment, whole period treatment, and the control oocytes (12-16%). (4) Cytogenetic analysis of the embryos derived from CB-treated non-PB1 oocytes resulted in 74% of the one-cell stage embryos being 4n = 120 chromosomes, 82% of two-cell stage embryos contained 4n chromosomes in each blastomere, and 75% of the blastocysts were tetraploidy (4n = 120). (6) The stopped uncleaved one-cell embryos showed an amazing phenomenon of over 15% of them containing extra chromosomes, which suggested multiple DNA duplication occurred within 40 h after activation. In conclusion, CB inhibits PB1 extrusion, disfigures spindle structure, decreases oocyte maturation, and results in formation of diploid (2n or 4c) oocytes. The diploid oocytes resulted in a higher development of tetraploid embryos, which would be a unique approach for the production of tetraploid embryos in bovine.