The antioxidative effect of gamma-oryzanol on ovine embryo development in vitro

The researches of the past two decades in the field of laboratory embryo production in ruminants tried to maximize the number of developed embryos and increase the quality of produced blastocysts. The present study addresses the effect of gamma-oryzanol in the culture medium of ovine oocytes using embryo development evaluation. For this purpose, ovine ovaries were collected from the slaughterhouse, and then the oocytes were aspirated from 2 to 6 mm follicles subjected to washing, maturation and fertilization in vitro, then cultured in drops of medium enriched with or without 5 μM of gamma-oryzanol. Assessment of embryo development showed that the cleavage and total blastocyst rate was higher in treatment than control (P < 0.05), however, there was no difference between early, expanded, and hatched blastocysts as well as total cell number. The results showed downregulation of BAX, and Caspase-9 transcripts however no modulation was observed in the expression of BCL-2, NRF2, SOD, and CAT transcripts in treatment group compared to control. In conclusion, gamma-oryzanol improves the efficiency of ovine embryo production through an antiapoptotic pathway.