Maturation of bovine cumulus oocyte complexes in follicular fluid with or without estradiol, progesterone or the combination affects cumulus cell expansion and blastocyst development
Fig 2
Representative image of oocyte maturation in response to exposure to follicular fluid.
(A-L) Cumulus oocyte complexes (COCs) were matured for 19 h in the presence or absence of 75% follicular fluid as an additive to the oocyte maturation medium; cOMM= control oocyte maturation medium; eOMM= experimental OMM (contains charcoal stripped (cs) fetal bovine serum, no FSH, no estradiol and no EGF); LFF75= 75% untreated large follicular fluid; SFF75= 75% untreated small follicular fluid; csLFF75= 75% charcoal stripped large follicular fluid; csSFF75= 75% charcoal stripped small follicular fluid; E2= estradiol (23 ng/ml for csSFF and 37 ng/ml for csLFF treatment); P4= progesterone (140 ng/ml for csSFF and 160 ng/ml for csLFF treatment). (M) Representative COCs at the time of collection and beginning of maturation (time 0, t 0h). Scale bar on figures A-M = 400µm; images captured at 10X. (N) Denuded mature oocyte with the extruded polar body (PB). DNA was labeled with Hoescht 33342 (blue). There were no differences in the nuclear maturation rates as an effect of treatment. Scale bar on panel N = 50µm; image captured at 40X magnification.