Evaluating the Effect of Kaempferol on the Sheep Oocyte In Vitro Developmental Competence in Response to Inflammatory Effects Induced by Lipopolysaccharide

 Nowadays, endotoxemia is considered as one of the fundamental causes of infertility in different animals or humans due to various bacterial infections because of the entry of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the membrane of the gram-negative bacteria’s wall into the blood. This study aimed to evaluate the inflammation caused by LPS and the protective effect of kaempferol (KAE), which is a natural flavonoid with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties on oocytes developmental competence.

For this purpose in oocyte maturation medium, in the first experiment with concentrations of 0, 0.1, 0.1, 1 and 10μg/ml of  LPS, in the second experiment with concentrations of 0, 0.1, 1 and 10 μM of  KAE and in the third experiment with concentrations of  0, 0.1, 1 and 10 μM of  KAE  with  LPS  were cultured for  24  hours. After in vitro maturation, mature oocytes were identified and fertilized with incubated sperm, and the rates of cleaved oocyte and oocytes reached to blastocyst stage were analyzed.

The treatment with 1 and 10 μg/ml of LPS significantly reduced blastocyst rate compared to the control group (p<0.05), but supplementation of oocyte maturation medium with different concentrations of KAE had no effect on the rates of cleaved oocyte and oocytes reached to blastocyst stage (p>0.05). In addition, the results of different concentrations of KAE with LPS show that KAE  did  not has no significant effect on the rates of cleaved and blastocyst oocyte inflammatory conditions caused by lipopolysaccharide (p>0.05).

In summary, the data presented here have shown that LPS exhibits detrimental effects on sheep oocyte development in a dose-dependent manner and KAE is not effective in ameliorating these effects.