Effects of Gangliosides on Spermatozoa, Oocytes, and Preimplantation Embryos

Abstract

Gangliosides are sialic acid-containing glycosphingolipids, which are the most abundant family of glycolipids in eukaryotes. Gangliosides have been suggested to be important lipid molecules required for the control of cellular procedures, such as cell differentiation, proliferation, and signaling. GD1a is expressed in interstitial cells during ovarian maturation in mice and exogenous GD1a is important to oocyte maturation, monospermic fertilization, and embryonic development. In this context, GM1 is known to influence signaling pathways in cells and is important in sperm–oocyte interactions and sperm maturation processes, such as capacitation. GM3 is expressed in the vertebrate oocyte cytoplasm, and exogenously added GM3 induces apoptosis and DNA injury during in vitro oocyte maturation and embryogenesis. As a consequence of this, ganglioside GT1b and GM1 decrease DNA fragmentation and act as H2O2 inhibitors on germ cells and preimplantation embryos. This review describes the functional roles of gangliosides in spermatozoa, oocytes, and early embryonic development.

Lipid Stores and Lipid Metabolism Associated Gene Expression in Porcine and Bovine Parthenogenetic Embryos Revealed by Fluorescent Staining and RNA-seq

“…The HEXA gene in our study was also significantly higher expressed in porcine blastocysts which corresponds to upregulation of a substrate specific cofactor GM2A. Most of publications describe GM1, GM3 and GD1a gangliosides as important factors involved in the EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) signaling pathway [28]. In porcine embryos, exogenous GD1a supported maturation and blastocyst formation in vitro [29].…”

“…GM2 Activator, also known as SAP3 (Shingolipid Activator Protein 3), coded by the GM2A gene, is one of the components of the B-hexosaminidaseA (HEXA) complex necessary for the enzymatic processing of gangliosides, which are sialic acid-containing acidic glycosphingolipids. Gangliosides found in animal plasma membranes exhibit cell-type specificity and are implicated in various cellular functions, differentiation, signal transduction and immunity [27,28]. The HEXA gene in our study was also significantly higher expressed in porcine blastocysts which corresponds to upregulation of a substrate specific cofactor GM2A.…”

Female Reproductive Failures in Mouse Adolescent Pregnancy

“…Because the reduction of average litter size was obvious in F3, our further analysis focused on the comparison between F3 and 3M groups. It has been shown that decrease in litter size could result from dysfunctional uteri or decreasing embryo number [20,21], and most problems during embryonic development are associated with placentation defects [22]. In examining day 12 (D12) pregnant mice, F3 mice were revealed to have abnormal uteri compared with 3M mice (Fig.…”

Protective Effect of Edible Bird’s Nest on Ovaries of Cycling Female Rats Subjected to Cadmium Toxicity

“…This effect of EBN might be due to its potential bioactive components; the nutritional composition of EBN is protein, carbohydrate, ash, and lipids (Ma & Liu, 2012), while sialic acid is the major carbohydrate component found in EBN (Daud et al, 2019). Sialic acid-containing gangliosides have been demonstrated to efficiently protect oocytes and embryos from ROS produced injury, which is one of the major mechanisms of Cd toxicity (Kim et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2019).…”