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Reproduction (2004) 128 697-702
DOI: 10.1530/rep.1.00484
Copyright © 2004 Society for Reproduction and Fertility
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RESEARCH

Phospholipase C{zeta} causes Ca2+ oscillations and parthenogenetic activation of human oocytes

N T Rogers1, E Hobson2, S Pickering2, F A Lai3, P Braude2 and K Swann4

1 Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, 2 Assisted Conception Unit and GKT Department of Women’s Health, Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Trust, Guy’s Hospital, London SE1 9RT, 3 Wales Heart Research Institute, Wales College of Medicine, Heath Park, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF14 4XN and 4 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Wales College of Medicine, Heath Park, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF14 4XN, UK

Correspondence should be addressed to K Swann; Email: SwannK1{at}cf.ac.uk

At fertilization in mammals the sperm activates development of the oocyte by inducing a prolonged series of oscillations in the cytosolic free Ca2+ concentration. One theory of signal transduction at fertilization suggests that the sperm cause the Ca2+ oscillations by introducing a protein factor into the oocyte after gamete membrane fusion. We recently identified this sperm-specific protein as phospholipase C{zeta} (PLC{zeta}), and we showed that PLC{zeta} triggers Ca2+ oscillations in unfertilized mouse oocytes. Here we report that microinjection of the complementary RNA for human PLC{zeta} causes prolonged Ca2+ oscillations in aged human oocytes that had failed to fertilize during in vitro fertilization or intracytoplasmic sperm injection. The frequency of Ca2+ oscillations was related to the concentration of complementary RNA injected. At low concentrations, PLC{zeta} stimulated parthenogenetic activation of oocytes. These embryos underwent cleavage divisions and some formed blastocysts. These data show that PLC{zeta} is a novel parthenogenetic stimulus for human oocytes and that it is unique in its ability to mimic the repetitive nature of the Ca2+ stimulus provided by the sperm during human fertilization.







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