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Abstract
The developmental competence of oocytes from prepubertal and adult goats was studied
through in vitro maturation, fertilization and embryo culture up to the blastocyst
stage. Oocytes were recovered from antral follicles of prepubertal and adult goat
ovaries, with or without ovarian stimulation with exogenous FSH. The effect of different
sources of granulosa cells during IVM on the developmental competence of prepubertal
goat oocytes was also noted. Oocytes were matured for 27 h at 38.5 degrees C in 5%
CO(2) in air in 50-microl microdrops in TCM199 supplemented with 20% estrus goat serum,
FSH, LH and estradiol-17beta or in 2 ml of the same medium supplemented with granulosa
cells. Matured oocytes were inseminated with freshly ejaculated spermatozoa following
capacitation At 24 h post-insemination, the oocytes were transferred to a granulosa
cell monolayer, and early embryo development was evaluated until Day 10. Results show
that the developmental ability of embryos from prepubertal goats after IVM and IVF
is similar to those from adult goats. Treatment of the prepubertal and adult goats
with FSH did not improve the developmental capacity of the resulting embryos. On studying
the addition of different sources of granulosa cells to a maturation system of 2 ml
of medium, a significantly positive effect of the cells from primed females was observed
on the percentage of maturation, on embryo cleavage and on the percentage of embryos
that overcame the in vitro developmental block from 8 to 16 cells.