High oxygen tension during in vitro oocyte maturation improves in vitro development of porcine oocytes after fertilization

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of oxygen tension during IVM and/or IVC on developmental competence of porcine follicular oocytes. Prospective, randomized experiments were designed, and oocytes were matured, inseminated and cultured in vitro in the designated condition. In experiment 1, either high (20%) or low (7%) oxygen tension was used for IVM. The high oxygen significantly improved blastocyst formation (23% versus 13%; P < 0.01) after IVF than the low oxygen. Such treatment, however, did not significantly (P > 0.05) improve the rates of nuclear maturation (89% in each treatment), sperm penetration (62–72%), monospermic fertilization (56–67%), pronuclear formation (90–96%), cleavage (49–53%) and blastocyst cell number (31–32 cells). In experiment 2, the combined effect of oxygen tension during IVM and IVC of embryos was evaluated by a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement. Again, the high oxygen tension during IVM supported blastocyst formation more efficiently (P < 0.01) than the low oxygen, and this was independent of oxygen tension during IVC (26–28% versus 15–16%). In oocytes matured under the high oxygen, a tendency to increase blastomere number (P = 0.0630) was found, when the low oxygen was used for IVC after insemination (39–45 cells/blastocyst). In conclusion, the use of high oxygen tension (20% maintained by exposure to 5% CO2 in air) for IVM of porcine oocytes promoted blastocyst formation in vitro.