Gold nanoparticles improve the embryonic developmental competency of artificially activated mouse oocytes

Currently, artificial oocyte activation has attracted wide attention in assisted reproduction due to extensive range of applications, particularly in somatic cell nuclear transfer and deriving pluripotent stem cell lines and it is the unique model to determine the role of paternal genome. Numbers of artificial activating agents have been used extensively to induce the oocytes activation; however, embryos developmental competency of artificially activated oocytes is still very low. In the present study, we determined the functional impact of strontium chloride supplementation with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in artificial oocytes activation and subsequent embryonic development. Oocytes were activated artificially in the culture medium containing ۲۵۰ nM AuNPs with constant concentration of strontium chloride ۱۰.۰۰ mM. We found that adding ۲۵۰ nM AuNPs with constant concentration of strontium chloride (۱۰.۰۰ mM for ۳ hr) in culture medium improves the proportion of embryos reaching to the morula and blastocyst stages from ۶۱.۰۰% and ۴۲.۰۰% (controls) to ۷۵.۰۰% and ۵۸.۰۰% (۲۵۰ nM AuNPs), respectively. In addition, foster mothers receiving AuNPs-treated embryos showed more implantation percentage and pregnancy rate relative to females received control embryos. Finally, embryos treated with ۲۵۰ nM AuNPs concentration showed no toxic effect in term of blastocyst development. Collectively, our findings suggest the potential role of AuNPs in early embryonic development for mouse oocytes activated artificially and provide new insights in the field of animal biotechnology and assisted reproduction in humans.

کلیدواژه ها:

Embryonic development ، Gold nanoparticles ، Mice ، oocytes ، Parthenogenesis