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Mouse zona pellucida dynamically changes its elasticity during oocyte maturation, fertilization and early embryo development

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Abstract

A change in the elasticity of mouse zona pellucida was quantitatively evaluated during oocyte maturation, fertilization and early embryo development. Young’s modulus of zona pellucida of germinal vesicle (GV), metaphase-II (MII), pronuclear (PN), 2cell, 4cell, 8cell, morulae (M) and early blastocyst (EB) stages was measured using a micro tactile sensor (MTS) and a chamber exclusively designed for the measurement. The MTS has very high sensitivity and a deformation of only 5 μm was sufficient to calculate the Young’s modulus and the oocyte/embryo maintained its original spherical shape during the measurement. The Young’s modulus of GV, MII, PN, 2cell, 4cell, 8cell, M and EB was 22.8 ± 10.4 kPa (n = 30), 8.26 ± 5.22 kPa (n = 74), 22.3 ± 10.5 kPa (n = 66), 13.8 ± 3.54 kPa (n = 41), 12.6 ± 3.34 kPa (n = 19), 5.97 ± 4.97 kPa (n = 6), 1.88 ± 1.34 kPa (n = 8) and 3.39 ± 1.86 kPa (n = 4), respectively. Experimental results clearly demonstrated that the mouse zona pellucida hardened following fertilization. Interestingly, once the zona pellucida hardened at the PN stage, it gradually softened as the embryo developed (i.e. it was found that the zona hardening is a transient phenomenon). Furthermore, the zona pellucida of the GV oocyte was as hard as that of the PN embryo and became soft as it matured to the MII stage. In addition, the safety of the MTS measurement for oocytes and embryos was discussed both theoretically and experimentally.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Engineering, NEWCAT Institute, Nihon University, Fukushima, Japan

    Yoshinobu Murayama, Hirokazu Kamakura, Yoichi Fueta & Sadao Omata

  2. Inui Maternity Clinic, Inui Institute for Frontier Reproductive Medicine and Infertility, Fukushima, Japan

    Jinji Mizuno, Hiroko Nakamura, Kazuyuki Akaishi, Ken Anzai, Akihiko Watanabe & Hiroaki Inui

Authors
  1. Yoshinobu Murayama
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  2. Jinji Mizuno
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  3. Hirokazu Kamakura
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  4. Yoichi Fueta
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  5. Hiroko Nakamura
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  6. Kazuyuki Akaishi
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  7. Ken Anzai
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  8. Akihiko Watanabe
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  9. Hiroaki Inui
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  10. Sadao Omata
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Correspondence to Yoshinobu Murayama.

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Murayama, Y., Mizuno, J., Kamakura, H. et al. Mouse zona pellucida dynamically changes its elasticity during oocyte maturation, fertilization and early embryo development. Hum Cell 19, 119–125 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-0774.2006.00019.x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-0774.2006.00019.x

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