Silver nanoparticles are widely used in different fields of medicine despite the lack of information on their influence on animal's reproductive system, mammalian gametes and embryos. We investigated the effect of different concentrations of silver nanoparticles (0, 0.01, 0.1, 1 and 10 µg/mL) on maturation of rabbit's oocytes co-culture with granulosa cells in vitro. For this purpose, we synthesized small (11.28±0.32 nm) spherical silver nanoparticles with different composite agents: polyvinylpyrrolidone and bovine serum albumin. Our results have shown that silver nanoparticles at the concentration of 10 µg/ml inhibited granulosa cells proliferation, but did not influence the oocytes maturation to metaphase-2. The loss of granulosa cells viability was confirmed by the release of calcium and lactate dehydrogenase in the culture medium. Analysis of the data showed that silver nanoparticles in concentration of 0-10 µg/mL did not influence on progesterone and cholesterol concentration in culture medium. We have hypothesized that less toxic effect of silver nanoparticles on oocytes is caused by the presence of zona pellucida with different mechanisms of cellular uptake.

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In reproductive medicine it is important to determine the quality of embryo development without interference in their function and viability. The surface plasmon resonance of silver nanoparticles makes them promising candidates for optical sensing, molecular labeling and imaging applications. Furthermore unique optical properties of silver nanoparticles provide an opportunity to use them as real time analytic tools in living state especially for observation of dynamic processes in gametes and embryos. The main aim of the study was to investigate the physicochemical properties and biological activities of novel silver nanoparticles with prospect of their use for the determining the quality of embryo development. For this purpose, we investigated the optical properties of new silver nanoparticles in biological mediums during cultivation and their influence on rabbit's embryos development in vitro. The physicochemical and biological properties of novel silver nanoparticles were compared with silver nanoparticles identical in size and shapes but with different chemical surfaces modifications by polyvinylpyrrolidone and bovine serum albumin. The results suggest that silver nanoparticles with hyaluronic acid were disintegrated with the formation of new complexes with proteins in biological mediums. This property with strong optical surface plasmon resonance of novel silver nanoparticles with hyaluronan makes them promising candidates in diagnostic area and gives reasons to explore them as biomarkers of target molecules. Nevertheless novel silver nanoparticles with hyaluronan at the concentrations of 0.1-1 µg/ml have no toxic effect on rabbit's embryos development and can be successfully applied in reproductive medicine.

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