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Fertilizability, developmental competence, and chromosomal integrity of oocytes microinjected with pre-treated spermatozoa in mice

¹ Department of Food Production Science
² National Research Center for Protozoan Diseases, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada-cho, Obihiro, Hokkaido 080-8555, Japan
³ Department of Animal Production Science, The United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Iwate University, Morioka 020-8550, Japan

Correspondence should be addressed to Y Fukui; Email: fukui{at}obihiro.ac.jp

The aim of the present study was to investigate the safety of sperm pre-treatment during the ICSI procedure using a mouse model. Mouse spermatozoa were treated with methyl-β-cyclodextrin, lysolecithin, Triton X-100, and dithiothreitol (DTT), and injected into mouse oocytes. The injected oocytes were monitored for chromosomal integrity and pre- and post-implantation development. The chromosomal integrity of the injected oocytes was impaired by in vitro incubation and chemical antagonism. Particularly in the 60-min DTT group, severe chromosome damage increased. Despite the chromosomal damage, the resultant embryos frequently developed to the blastocyst stage. However, the embryos in the 60-min DTT group had significantly higher chromosomal damage and decreased developmental competence to live fetuses. These results indicate that excessive sperm pre-treatment such as DTT for 60 min generates severe chromosome damage in injected oocytes, and that the damage decreases developmental competence to live fetuses but not to blastocysts.