Relationship between donor animal age, follicular fluid XXXX content and oocyte developmental competence in the @entity1707 .

@entity1707 @entity251 @entity1420 @entity53 @entity134 @entity2671
The developmental competence of oocytes recovered from the ovaries of slaughtered prepubertal and adult @entity1707 was evaluated after in vitro maturation, parthenogenetic activation and culture in vitro. In addition, the effect of prepubertal and adult follicular fluid (FF) on the developmental competence of prepubertal and adult oocytes was investigated. When matured in adult FF, the rates of cleavage (92 v. 73% P < 0.01) and blastocyst formation (57 v. 38%; P < 0.05) were greater for adult oocytes than for prepubertal oocytes. Blastocysts derived from adult oocytes had more trophectoderm cells (43 v. 30; P < 0.05) and total cells (51 v. 36; P < 0.05) than blastocysts derived from prepubertal oocytes. The developmental competence of prepubertal oocytes was not affected by the FF donor age, whereas the developmental competence of adult oocytes was. Blastocysts derived from adult oocytes matured in adult FF had more trophectoderm cells (38 v. 24; P < 0.005), inner cell mass cells (7 v. 3; P < 0.01) and total cells (45 v. 27; P < 0.001) than blastocysts derived from adult oocytes matured in prepubertal FF. Characterization of the @entity134 content of the FF used to supplement the maturation medium revealed that adult FF contained more @entity1420 (42 v. 23 ng mL(-1); P < 0.005) and @entity2671 (70 v. 16 ng mL(-1); P < 0.05) than prepubertal FF. In addition, the molar ratios of @entity1420 to @entity2671 , @entity2671 to @entity53 and @entity2671 to @entity251 differed (P < 0.05) between prepubertal and adult FF. The results support the hypothesis that a greater proportion of adult oocytes than of prepubertal oocytes has completed 'oocyte capacitation'. The differences in FF @entity134 content are indicative of the different follicular environments from which the prepubertal and adult oocytes were isolated, and may be attributed to the observed effects on oocyte developmental competence.
