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β-carotene improves oocyte development and maturation under oxidative stress in vitro
Journal article   Peer reviewed

β-carotene improves oocyte development and maturation under oxidative stress in vitro

S. Yu, Y. Zhao, Y. Feng, H. Zhang, L. Li, W. Shen, M. Zhao and L. Min
In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology - Animal, Vol.55(7), pp.548-558
2019
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Abstract

Recently, the mean maternal age at first birth has been continuing to increase. The decline in the age-related fertility is due to the reduction in the number and the quality of the oocyte. An elevation in intra-ovarian reactive oxygen species (ROS) is correlated with the increase in maternal age, and the oxidative stress is involved in the decline in oocyte quality. Although β-carotene, a very effective quencher of ROS, has been found to have the beneficial contribution to the ovarian development and steroidogenesis, it is unknown the effect of β-carotene on the oocyte development especially oocyte maturation. This investigation aimed to explore the beneficial contribution of β-carotene on oocyte maturation under oxidative stress and the underlying mechanism. We found that the oxidative stress induced by ROS reagent Rosup inhibited oocyte development/maturation and parthenogenetic activation which could be dramatically rescued by β-carotene (57.1 ± 4.7% vs 78.9 ± 3.8%; p < 0.05) in vitro. The underlying mechanisms include that β-carotene not only reduces ROS formation and cell apoptosis, but also it can restore actin expression, cortical granule-free domain (CGFD) formation, mitochondria homogeneous distribution, and nuclear maturation. The data suggest that β-carotene acts as a potential antioxidant in the oocyte. Therefore, the findings from this investigation provide the fundamental 7knowledge for using β-carotene as an antioxidant to improve the oocyte quality and even the ovarian function.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Citation topics
1 Clinical & Life Sciences
1.81 Reproductive Biology
1.81.339 Embryo Development
Web Of Science research areas
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology
ESI research areas
Molecular Biology & Genetics
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