138 FATTY ACID β-OXIDATION REGULATES BOVINE EMBRYO OXYGEN METABOLISM
Authors: McKeegan P. J. , Guerif F. G. , Sturmey R. G. 
Published: December 2012

Mammalian oocytes are rich in endogenous lipid, which provides a potential source of metabolic energy during oocyte maturation and early embryo development after fertilisation. Despite this, studies on early embryo metabolism have focussed on consumption of substrates from the culture medium, with comparatively little consideration for endogenous stores. Additionally, the interaction between fatty acid β-oxidation and oxygen consumption during pre-implantation development has not been investigated. This study has investigated the relationship between embryo fatty acid metabolism and oxygen consumption rate (OCR), a marker of overall oxidative metabolic activity. The amount of oxygen consumption by bovine blastocysts coupled to ATP synthesis was assessed by measuring embryo OCR following acute treatment with oligomycin, which inhibits ATP synthase. Bovine embryos were then produced in vitro and cultured from zygote to blastocyst stage (8 days) in the presence of β-mercaptoacetate (BMA), a competitive inhibitor of fatty acid β-oxidation, or L-carnitine, a cofactor that promotes β-oxidation. OCR of individual embryos was measured using a noninvasive, highly sensitive oxygen probe (Unisense), whereas OCR of embryos in groups was determined using the Oxygen Biosensor (OBS) fluorimetric assay (BD Biosciences, Erembodegem, Belgium). Mean OCR measured by each technique correlated well. Data are presented as means ± SEM. The effect of acute inhibition were compared by a paired t-test, with pre-treated embryos acting as their own control, whereas the effect of L-carnitine and BMA on OCR was compared across treatment groups using ANOVA with Dunn’s test for unequal groups post hoc, using Sigmaplot (Systat Software Inc., San Jose, CA, USA). Treatment with oligomycin caused blastocyst OCR to fall from 23.5 ± 3.3 to 7.9 ± 2.5 pmol/embryo/h (n = 3; P = 0.03). Inhibition of β-oxidation by BMA led to a modest, but consistent increased OCR in cleavage stage embryos: 4-cell: 14.8 ± 7.2 (n = 12) v. 8.9 ± 1.1 pmol/embryo/h (n = 3) control; 8-cell: 15.8 ± 2.2 (n = 6) v. 11.9 ± 2.3 pmol/embryo/h (n = 3) control. At the morula stage, BMA led to a significant rise in OCR (26.8 ± 3.6 (n = 7) v. 7.8 ± 1.7 pmol/embryo/h (n = 3) control; P = 0.003) and at the blastocyst stage, OCR was significantly elevated in the presence of BMA; 41.3 ± 2.6 (n = 19) v. 16.9 ± 1.3 pmol/embryo/h (n = 14) control (P = 0.01). By contrast, when groups of embryos were cultured in the presence of L-carnitine, blastocyst OCR was reduced by 45% from 24.7 ± 5.1 (group control) to 15.9 ± 3.7 pmol/embryo/h (n = 30; P < 0.06). We report that 66.5% of oxygen consumption by bovine blastocysts is oligomycin sensitive, meaning that 33.5% of oxygen consumption is used for processes other than ATP synthesis. Surprisingly, inhibition of fatty acid β-oxidation caused total bovine embryo OCR to rise, although the reasons for this are unclear. It is possible that inhibiting β-oxidation leads to an accumulation of free fatty acids in the mitochondrion, which can disrupt the inner membrane and lead decoupling of ATP synthesis from oxygen consumption. Thus, manipulating fatty acid oxidation in the early embryo dysregulates oxidative metabolism; the implications of this are under further investigation.