Avaliação molecular e funcional de embriões bovinos produzidos in vitro vitrificados por Cryotop

Resumo Ingles

The cryopreservation success of bovine embryos is essential for the better use of excess produced embryos, for the establishment of germplasm banks and genetics commercialization. In this study, gene expression alteration induced by the Cryotop vitrification procedure in bovine blastocysts using EmbryoGENE microarray slides was analyzed. Bovine in vitro produced embryos at blastocyst stage (144 to 156 hours postinsemination) were vitrified with Cryotop and non-vitrified (control). After 4 hours of culture, re-expanded or expanded blastocyst stage embryos were submitted to microarray analyzes and real time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) quantification. Global gene expression analysis revealed 43 differentially expressed genes in vitrified embryos compared to control group (p <0.05). Nine genes in total were evaluated by qPCR, of which FOSL1, involved in apoptosis process, showed differential expression (p <0.05) for both methods, being overexpressed in vitrified embryos. The results suggest that apoptosis plays a key role in embryos response of vitrification process. Considering that vitrification response is closely related to embryo quality, it was hypothesized that embryos selection for vitrification could also influence the difference in male:female ratio due to developmental speed and stress tolerance. Therefore, in the second stage of this study, the bull´s influence on embryo developmental kinetics and embryo response to cryopreservation was evaluated. For this, five bulls were taken and embryos cryopreservation by Cryotop method was compared in addition to embryo production. Initially, blastocyst stage embryos were vitrified (144 to 156 hours post-insemination), to evaluate the cryotolerance relative to the bulls; while expanded blastocyst stage embryos were removed from culture at D6, D7 and D8, then sexed for developmental kinetics. As a second experiment, expanded blastocyst stage embryos were vitrified (168 hours post-insemination). All embryos (re-expanded, hatched blastocyst stage e, and degenerated) of both treatments, with 24 hours post-vitrification culture were used for sexing. The results suggest that sire´s choice, although not interfering in embryonic development kinetics, affects the blastocysts rates and the cryopreservation response. Besides, bulls producing more cryoresistent embryos are not always the ones that produce the highest IVP embryo rate. In addition, male and female embryos have the same Cryotop vitrification response.