Development of in-vitro maturation protocol for rat oocytes; under simple culture vs co-culture with cumulus cell monolayer and its developmental potential via Parthenogenetic/artificial activation

Murine is the most abundantly used as laboratory animal models. There has been a tremendous amount of research including; their evolution, growth, physiology, disease modeling as well as genomic mapping. Rats and mice are the most widely used among them. Although both rats and mice fall under the same category still both are different a lot too. As regarding in vitro maturation and development mouse studies are well established as compared to rats which still lies in the early phase of development. So, we tried to figure out rat oocytes in vitro maturation and their developmental potential by performing 3 experiments i.e. superovulation, in vitro Maturation as simple culture (COC's only), and COC's & cumulus cells co-culture, which later further developed using parthenogenetic activation after IVM. Female Sprague Dawley rat 3-4 week used for these studies, we hyper-stimulated their ovaries using PMSG and hCG 150 IU/kg each. After that, we collected ovaries via dissection and retrieved oocytes. We matured them in TCM 199 supplemented with FSH, Estrogen, EGF, and Pyruvate. After maturation, we activated them using two types of activators i.e. Ethanol 7%, Ionomycin. After that, we saw and compared their developmental potential in vitro. Oocytes matured in COC's and Cumulus cell monolayer co-culture (59% ± 4*) showed significantly more even growth and extrusion of the first polar body as compared to the COC's only culture (53.8 ± 7%*). While oocytes activated using Ionomycin showed more promising development until 8 cells/blastocyst level compared to ethanol 7%. we concluded that COC's and cumulus monolayer co-culture is better than COC's only culture. Cumulus monolayer provides extra aid in the absorption of nutrients and supplements thus providing a better environment for oocytes growth. Also, we concluded that matured oocytes showed more developmental capacity after activation via ionomycin compared to ethanol.