167 INHIBITION OF HEAT SHOCK PROTEIN 90 REDUCES DEVELOPMENTAL COMPETENCE OF BOVINE OOCYTES

Abstract

The 90-kDa heat shock protein (HSP90) is a chaperone that is important for maintaing protein homeostasis under stress conditions. HSP90 seems also to be required for maturation of Xenopus oocytes (Fisher et al. 2000 EMBO J. 19, 1516) and first cleavage of mouse zygotes (Audouard et al. 2011 PloS One 6, e17109). This study aimed to evaluate the effect of inhibition of HSP90 by 17-(allylamino)-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17AAG, Sigma St. Louis, MO, USA) during in vitro maturation (IVM) on bovine oocyte developmental competence. Immature cumulus–oocyte complexes (COC) were randomly allocated in 3 treatments during IVM: T0 (control; n = 240), no HSP90 inhibitor; T1: 2 μM HSP90 inhibitor (17AAG; n = 250) for the first 12 h of IVM; and T2: 2 μM HSP90 inhibitor (n = 188) for 24 h of IVM. In vitro maturation was performed in Nunc plates containing 400 μL of TCM-199 medium (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) supplemented with porcine FSH (Hertape Calier, Juatuba, Brazil) and 10% oestrus cow serum under 5% CO₂, 95% humidity, and 38.5°C for 24 h. Oocytes were in vitro fertilized for 20 h and incubated under the same IVM conditions. Semen was processed by Percoll gradient (Nutricell, Campinas, Brazil) an IVF performed with 2 × 10⁶ spermatozoa mL^–1. Presumptive zygotes were completely denuded in a PBS solution with hyaluronidase and then cultured in wells with 500 μL of modified CR2aa medium supplemented with 2.5% fetal calf serum (Nutricell) in an incubator at 38.5°C under 5% CO₂, 5% O₂, 90% N₂, and saturated humidity. Cleavage rate was evaluated 72 h post-fertilization and blastocyst rates were evaluated at Day 7 and Day 8. Data from 6 repetitions were analysed by generalized linear model procedure of SAS software (version 9.1; SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA), and means were compared by Student-Newman-Keuls test. Values are shown as mean ± s.e.m. There was a tendency (P = 0.08) for a lower cleavage rate in T2 (52.6 ± 5.8%) than in T0 (control; 74.2 ± 4.1%). Inhibition of HSP90 by 17AAG for 12 h and 24 h of IVM (T1 and T2, respectively) decreased blastocyst rates at Day 7 (20.4 ± 3.0% and 14.3 ± 2.6%, respectively; P < 0.01) and Day 8 (22.6 ± 4.1% and 16.9 ± 2.7%, respectively; P < 0.05) when compared with control (T0 = 31.8 ± 2.5% and 34.1 ± 2.9% for Day 7 and Day 8, respectively). In addition, the inhibition of HSP90 for 24 h decreased (P < 0.05) the proportion of hatched blastocysts at Day 8 (9.5 ± 5.0% for T2, respectively) when compared with control (T0 = 35.8 ± 3.9%), indicating a reduction on embryo quality. In conclusion, inhibition of HSP90 by 17AAG during IVM results in lower developmental competence, suggesting that this protein is also important for bovine oocytes. Further studies are required to investigate if the role of HSP90 on developmental competence of bovine oocyte is affected when under stress conditions.

The authors acknowledge CNPq 473484/2011-0, FAPEMIG and FAPES for financial support.