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Author Notes:
Karolina Piotrowska-Nitsche: kpiotro@emory.edu.
Anthony WS Chan: achan@genetics.emory.edu.
The authors thank S Frankenberg and HC Kuo for comments on the manuscript; and C Lorthongpanich for assistance in statistical analysis.
They also thank PH Cheng, the animal care team and veterinary staff at the Yerkes National Primate Research Centre (YNPRC).
The authors report no financial or commercial conflicts of interest.
Subjects:
Research Funding:
This work was supported by NIH grant awarded to AWSC (RR018827–04).
Keywords:
- Science & Technology
- Life Sciences & Biomedicine
- Obstetrics & Gynecology
- Reproductive Biology
- ICSI
- non-human primates
- patterning
- sperm
- entry
- INTRACYTOPLASMIC SPERM INJECTION
- NORMAL MOUSE DEVELOPMENT
- RHESUS-MONKEY OOCYTES
- 1ST CLEAVAGE PLANE
- BLASTOCYST AXIS
- PREIMPLANTATION DEVELOPMENT
- MAMMALIAN EMBRYOS
- CELL LINEAGE
- BLASTOMERES
- POLARITY
Assisted fertilization and embryonic axis formation in higher primates
Abstract:
In naturally fertilized embryos of various organisms, the spermatozoon provides a localized cue to initiate early embryonic patterning. In mice, the sperm entry point (SEP) may reorient the first cleavage division, which separates the zygote into two halves that follow distinct fates. However, it is unknown whether the mechanical injection of spermatozoa into an oocyte by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a technique commonly used in human assisted reproduction, possesses such a role. Rhesus macaque embryos fertilized by ICSI were examined in order to determine the consequences of placing the spermatozoon at specific positions in the ooplasm and whether this can provide new information about patterning in mammalian eggs. The SEP specified by the injected spermatozoa was most often localized near the first cleavage plane and was mainly distributed along the boundary zone that separates the embryonic and abembryonic parts of the monkey blastocyst. Moreover, the ICSI data, when compared with naturally fertilized mouse embryos, showed a similar outcome in terms of cleavage axes and first embryonic axis specification. As there are no studies to date regarding sperm entry in human oocytes and its influence on embryonic development, this investigation using the rhesus macaque as a clinical model is noteworthy.
Copyright information:
© 2009 Published by Reproductive Healthcare Ltd.
This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
