197 INHIBITION OF CYSTEINE PROTEINASES DURING IN VITRO OOCYTE MATURATION IMPROVES DEVELOPMENT OF PORCINE CUMULUS–OOCYTE COMPLEXES

Biochemical differences exist between oocytes that give rise to viable blastocysts and oocytes that give rise to embryos that are developmentally compromised. For example, specific proteolytic enzymes (e.g. cathepsin B) are transcriptionally abundant in in vitro-matured bovine oocytes from prepubertal heifers that have diminished developmental potential. The effects of the cysteine proteinase inhibitor, E-64, was recently investigated in bovine cumulus–oocyte complexes (COC) that represented both poor- and good-quality oocytes. Those reports revealed that the addition of E-64 promoted both oocyte maturation and subsequent embryo development. This project sought to determine if similar results would be obtained in a porcine oocyte/embryo culture system. Inclusion of 10 and 20 μM E-64 in maturation medium was performed. Maturation rates of porcine COC in 20 μM E-64 were elevated compared to those incubated in 10 μM E-64 (74% vs 53%; P < 0.05) or without E-64 (55%; P < 0.05: N = 1750 oocytes tested). Successful maturation to metaphase II was based on the presence of a polar body and a uniform cytoplasm 44 h after follicular aspiration. Based on these preliminary results and the earlier bovine work, it was hypothesized that the E-64 was having little influence on normal oocytes, but was promoting maturation of low-quality oocytes, possibly those that were beginning to degenerate. Consequently, 20 μM of E-64 was added to the maturation media of COC segregated based on morphological characteristics of the oocytes. Good COC had a homogeneous cytoplasm and greater than 3 layers of cumulus cells; the COC were considered poor if they displayed a nonhomogeneous cytoplasm and 1 layer or less of cumulus cells, yet were still considered fertilizable. Without E-64, an increase in maturation was measured when good oocytes were compared to poor oocytes (52% vs 29%; P < 0.05: N = 1600). No significant differences in maturation were observed between good oocytes incubated in the presence or absence of E-64. Likewise, no significant differences were observed between poor oocytes incubated in the presence or absence of E-64. The percentage of maturation of good oocytes cultured in E-64 was significantly higher than that of poor oocytes cultured with E-64 (67% vs 43%; P < 0.05). Maturation with the inhibitor did not significantly affect the subsequent cleavage or blastocyst rates of embryos that arose from these oocyte groups after fertilization. These experiments suggest that inhibition of cysteine proteinases significantly promotes oocyte maturation, as was seen in previous bovine work. Our data did not support the hypothesis that cysteine proteinase inhibition was selectively improving maturation of poor oocytes within the pool. It remains possible that increased maturation in good oocytes is a result of cysteine inhibition on juvenile oocytes that morphologically appeared good and the effect was less on already degenerated oocytes that appeared poor. Differences between treatments were determined by ANOVA with post-test by Tukey's multiple comparison test.