豚体外受精胚の発育におよぼすビタミンEとビタミンCの添加効果

抄録

The present study was conducted to examine the effects of vitamin E (vitE) and/or vitamin C (vitC) on the development and DNA damage of in vitro produced pig embryos. In the first experiment, presumptive zygotes were cultured for 7 days in North Carolina State University (NCSU)-37 medium　supplemented with 0, 50, 100 or 200 µM of vitE, or 0, 50, 100 and 200 µM of vitC. Supplementation with 50 µM vitE showed a significantly higher blastocyst rate (19.2%) than that of supplementation of 100 and 200 µM(13.6 and 9.8%, respectively). The proportion of DNA fragmented cells in blastocysts was significantly higher in the 200 µM vitE (14.1%) than in the supplementation of 50 µM and 100 µM (9.5% and 10.5%, respectively). The supplementation with 200 µM vitC significantly decreased the blastocyst rate (5.1%) as compared with the supplementation of 0, 50, and 100 µM (13.9%, 16.6% and 13.4%, respectively). The proportion of DNA fragmented cells in blastocysts was significantly lower in the supplementation of 50 µM vitC than that in 0 µM and 200 µM. In the second experiment, to investigate synergistic effects of vit E and C on their developmental parameters and DNA damage, the zygotes were cultured in medium with vitE (50 µM) and/or vitC (50 µM). No significant differences in the proportions of blastocyst formation and DNA fragmented cells were found among the groups. In conclusion, excessive supplementation of vit E and C impairs the development and quality of embryos. Moreover, the combination of vit E and C had no beneficial effects on the development and DNA damage of embryos.