The Effect of Dimethyl-Sulfoxide and Sucrose as a Cryoprotectant on the Adenosine Triphosphate and Ultrastructure of Bovine Oocytes Matured In Vitro

The present study was undertaken to assess the influence of dimethyl-sulfoxide plus sucrose solution as a cryoprotectant on the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) content, the ultrastructure and the embryonic development of bovine oocytes matured in vitro. We measured the amount of ATP in cumulus cells enclosed oocytes (CO) or denuded oocytes (DO) equilibrated with or removed from the cryoprotectant (1.5 M DMSO + 0.25 M sucrose + 20% fetal bovine serum in physiological saline). As a result, the ATP contents in both CO and DO, equilibrated with the cryoprotectant, were significantly lower (p<0.05) than that of the each control group. However, ATP content of DO was recovered to the level of the control group ailer removal of the cryoprotectant, but failed to restore for CO. In the observation of the ultrastructure by a transmission electron microscope, all of the mitochondria in the ooplasm of CO and DO equilibrated with the cryoprotectant were swollen with peripherally located cristae following decreased electron density. However, a large proportion of these swollen mitochondria were restored to the normal shape which can be observed usually in the control group after removal from the cryoprotectant. To the contrary, the morphology of many mitochondria of the cumulus cells in CO were not recovered to that of the control group after removal of the cryoprotectant. CO with removed cryoprotectant had significantly lower embryonic development up to the blastocysts stage (p<0.05) after in vitro fertilization compared with that in the control group. These results suggest that the addition and removal of a cryoprotectant has a negative effect for the ATP content of cumulus enclosed oocytes. One of the factor(s) causing the lower embryonic development after removal of cryoprotectant, may be associated with ATP metabolism.