Detrimental effects of oxidative stress in bovine oocytes during intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is an essential technology in animal and human reproduction. However, the developmental competence and pregnancy rate of embryos derived from ICSI are still lower than that from the conventional in vitro fertilization technique. In this report, we focused on reactive oxygen species (ROS) as a potential detrimental factor for ICSI. Experiment 1 was conducted to evaluate the effect of oxidative stress by two different oxygen concentrations (20%: control vs. 5%) in ICSI on the developmental competence (blastocyst rate: day 7, DNA fragmentation rate: day 4) and, ROS concentration and mitochondrial membrane potential of oocytes in ICSI. In the 5% O2 group, the blastocyst rate (29.5%) was higher and DNA fragmentation rate (4.8 ± 1.0%) was lower than those in the control group significantly (12.7% and 18.2 ± 2.4%, respectively, P < 0.05). Also, ROS concentration in the 5% O2 group (12.8 ± 0.7) was significantly lower than that in the control group (47.8 ± 6.9, P < 0.05). In experiment 2, we examined the supplementation of media with reduced glutathione (GSH) during ICSI procedure in an attempt to reduce the oxidative stress. The addition of GSH to the culture medium improved the blastocyst rate (17.6% vs. 30.4%, P < 0.05), and decreased the ROS levels in the oocytes (70.0 ± 7.4 vs. 23.9 ± 4.0, P < 0.05). In conclusion, our present study revealed that oocytes are under oxidative stress in ICSI procedure. Reduction of the oxygen concentration to 5% in the culture environment, or the addition of GSH in to the medium during ICSI procedure can promote the normal embryo development following the ICSI.