The Sea Cucumber Body Wall Extract Promoted in Vitro Maturation of NMRI Mice Follicles at Germinal Vesicle Stage

Background IVM (in vitro maturation) appear to be certified high pregnancy outcome. Therefore, attempt to find an appropriate culture system using natural products for increasing developmental competencies fascinating. Objectives This experiment is aimed to evaluate the effect of sea cucumber methanol extract on in vitro maturation of immature mouse oocyte. Methods In this experimental study, Preantral follicles at germinal vesicle stage were collected from 24 - 26 days NMRI female mouse ovaries and transferred to IVM medium supplemented with different concentration of sea cucumber methanol extract (5, 10, 20, 30 µg/mL). Antioxidant capacity of sea cucumber extract was evaluated using DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) assay. Further, oocyte maturation and TNF-α expression were recorded till day 10^th. Data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) through SPSS 16. Results The percentage of arrested oocyte at germinal vesicle stage in the control group was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than treated group (20 µg/mL). There were significant (P < 0.01) differences in percentage of maturated oocyte to metaphase II (MII) stage between treated and control group. DPPH radical scavenging capacity and reduction of TNF-α expression in treated oocyte demonstrated that sea cucumber increased rate of oocyte maturation. In addition, the treated oocyte (20 µg/mL) achieved the highest percentage of MII stage. Conclusions It was concluded that the sea cucumber extract with optimum concentration can improve oocyte maturation. Sea cucumber extract treatment can be suggested as a novel therapeutic strategy to be used in infertility modality in the future.