Evaluation of cheetah and leopard spermatozoa developmental capability after interspecific ICSI with domestic cat oocytes

The ICSI procedure is potentially of great value for felids, and it has not been extensively studied in these species. The objectives of this work were to determine the best conditions for ICSI in the domestic cat [DC] to generate interspecific embryos by injecting cheetah [Ch] and leopard [Leo] spermatozoa. Firstly, DC oocytes were matured with insulin-transferrin-selenium [ITS] or without it [MM] and cultured using atmospheric [21 percent] or low [5 percent] oxygen tension after ICSI. The group ITS-5 percent of O2 showed the highest blastocyst rate [p less than 0.05], 20.9 percent vs 8.7 percent, 7 percent and 6.5 percent, for MM-21 percent of O2, MM-5 percent of O2 and ITS-21 percent of O2, respectively. The best conditions were used to generate the interspecific embryos, together with ionomycin activation [Io] after ICSI. Interspecific embryos resulted in high rates of blastocysts that were not positively affected by Io activation: 32.6 percent vs 21 percent for Ch and Ch-Io, 9.8 percent vs 21 percent for Leo and Leo-Io, and 20 percent vs 17.4 percent for DC and DC-Io. We also evaluated DNA-fragmented nuclei of experiment 1 and 2 blastocysts, using TUNEL assay. The fragmented nucleus proportion was higher in the ITS-5 percent of O2 group, 67.6 percent. Surprisingly, interspecific blastocysts showed the lowest fragmented nucleus proportion: 27 percent and 29.9 percent for Ch and Leo, respectively. We concluded that ITS and 5 percent of O2 improve blastocyst formation in DC, although with a concomitant increase in DNA fragmentation. Most importantly, cheetah and leopard spermatozoa were able to generate blastocysts without artificial activation, which suggests that developmental capacity of wild felid spermatozoa can be evaluated by interspecific ICSI. This technique should be used to assist wild felid reproduction.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Moro, L. N., Sestelo, A. J., Salamone, Daniel Felipe
Format:	Texto biblioteca
Language:	spa
Subjects:	ACINONYX JUBATUS, FELIDAE, FELIS CATUS, PANTHERA PARDUS,
Online Access:	http://ceiba.agro.uba.ar/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=47115
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