Fertilization and development of oocytes after ICSI with semen of stallions with different in vivo fertility

Male Factors Affecting the Success of Equine In Vitro Embryo Production by Ovum Pickup-Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection in a Clinical Setting

“…We did make some very preliminary studies, several years ago, on a limited number of stallions [12] using abattoir oocytes and we found no differences between stallions of different field fertility when used for ICSI, except for a stallion with completely immotile spermatozoa after thawing. In a later study in a larger sample of stallions [13] M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 4 we found however a male factor effect both early at cleavage stage and later at blastocyst development stage. Other authors identified stallions with different performances after ICSI [2,14].…”

“…When the semen was used for ICSI in two occasions cleavage rate was very low (15.38%) and no embryo developed. Therefore we decided to run a stallion test both with abattoir oocytes and with pig oocytes [13]. The tests confirmed that the stallion gave a very low cleavage rate both with horse and pig oocytes and none of the horse oocytes developed to blastocyst (Table 10).…”

“…Some variability between stallions were also reported by Choi et al [2] comparing a control high fertility ICSI stallion with two stallions of which one (FD) was frozen-thawed twice before use (Table 3). Moreover in another ICSI study done in our laboratory using abattoir oocytes, Colleoni et al [13] compared the frozen semen of five in vivo fertile stallions with the semen of five stallions (fresh semen of 2 stallions, frozen semen of 3 stallions) unable to establish pregnancy in vivo but with motile spermatozoa available for ICSI (Table 4). We found that the cleavage and blastocyst development rate of the infertile stallions were lower compared with the high fertility stallions, but all stallions could produce embryos except one.…”

“…Interestingly the same information on the inherent fertility/infertility of the stallions, measured as pronuclei formation and cleavage rate, were derived also in a trial of xenofertilization using pig oocytes that are usually of very uniform and higher quality than horse oocytes. Therefore, in absence of abattoir horse oocytes, pig oocytes can be used to test the potential of an infertile stallion sperm to achieve pronuclei formation and cleavage after xenofertilization by ICSI [13].…”

Phospholipase C Zeta 1 (PLCZ1): The Function and Potential for Fertility Assessment and In Vitro Embryo Production in Cattle and Horses

“…During in vitro fertilization, oocyte activation failure after sperm injection is probably a major cause of fertility failure in horses and humans [ 51 , 52 , 53 ]. Sperm from some stallions result in consistently good embryo development rates after ICSI, while sperm from other stallions consistently result in poor or no embryo development [ 54 , 55 , 56 ], suggesting a difference in oocyte activating potentials. In equine ICSI, plasma membrane integrity is found to be the sperm attribute most highly associated with embryo development and pregnancy after ICSI when compared to sperm morphology and DNA integrity [ 57 ].…”