Effects of caffeine treatment on aged porcine oocytes: parthenogenetic activation ability, chromosome condensation and development to the blastocyst stage after somatic cell nuclear transfer

The possibility of using aged porcine oocytes treated with caffeine, which inhibits the decrease in M-phase promoting factor activity, for pig cloning was evaluated. Cumulus–oocyte complexes (COCs) were cultured initially for 36h and subsequently with or without 5mM caffeine for 24h (in total for 60h: 60CA+ or 60CA– group, respectively). As a control group, COCs were cultured for 48h without caffeine (48CA–). The pronuclear formation rates at 10h after electrical stimulation in the 60CA+ and 60CA– groups decreased significantly (p