Oviduct Epithelial Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles Improve Porcine Trophoblast Outgrowth

Abstract

Porcine species have a great impact on studies on biomaterial production, organ transplantation and the development of biomedical models. The low efficiency of in vitro-produced embryos to derive embryonic stem cells has made achieving this goal a challenge. The fallopian tube plays an important role in the development of embryos. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) secreted by oviductal epithelial cells play an important role in the epigenetic regulation of embryo development. We used artificially isolated oviductal epithelial cells and EVs. In this study, oviductal epithelial cell (OEC) EVs were isolated and characterized through transmission electron microscopy, nanoparticles tracking analysis, western blotting and proteomics. We found that embryo development and blastocyst formation rate was significantly increased (14.3% ± 0.6% vs. 6.0% ± 0.6%) after OEC EVs treatment. According to our data, the inner cell mass (ICM)/trophectoderm (TE) ratio of the embryonic cell number increased significantly after OEC EVs treatment (43.7% ± 2.3% vs. 28.4% ± 2.1%). Meanwhile, the attachment ability of embryos treated with OEV EVs was significantly improved (43.5% ± 2.1% vs. 29.2% ± 2.5%, respectively). Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), we found that the expression of reprogramming genes (POU5F1, SOX2, NANOG, KLF4 and c-Myc) and implantation-related genes (VIM, KRT8, TEAD4 and CDX2) significantly increased in OEC EV-treated embryos. We report that OEC EV treatment can improve the development and implantation abilities of embryos.

Messenger roles of extracellular vesicles during fertilization of gametes, development and implantation: Recent advances

“…EVs produced by healthy fallopian tubes are beneficial to embryo development. In pigs, for example, O-EVs can promote embryonic development by increasing blastocyst formation rate and attachment ability ( Fang et al, 2022a ). The contents of O-EVs may be the cause of the positive effect, not only promoting early embryo development but also alleviating the embryo’s damage from adverse factors.…”

Oviduct epithelial cell‑derived extracellular vesicles promote the developmental competence of IVF porcine embryos

“…Recently, the beneficial effects of OEC-EVs on porcine embryos generated through parthenogenesis and cloning technology ( 24 ) and the improved derivation of trophoblast stem cells were reported ( 26 ). Thus, the aim of the present study was to mimic the in vivo conditions and reduce polyspermy by investigating the effects of porcine OEC-EVs on the interaction between sperm and oocyte during IVF and subsequent in vitro embryonic development.…”