1 ISCARE IVF, Hloubetinska 3/13, CS-198 00 Prague 9 and 2 Institute of Animal Production, POB 1, CS-104 01 Prague 10, Czech Republic
3 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Institute of Animal Production, POB 1, CS-104 01 Prague 10, Czech Republic. e-mail: fulka{at}vuzv.cz
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Abstract |
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Key words: maturation/meiotic arrest/oocytes
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Introduction |
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The process of maturation is under control of maturation promoting factor (MPF). More simply, in immature oocytes, MPF is present in an inactive phosphorylated form as a complex of Cdk 1 and cyclin B. This phosphorylation is controlled by Myt 1 kinase. The dephosphorylation of MPF is induced by Cdc25 phosphatase (probably by Cdc25B). The activity of MPF reaches its peak in MI and then decreases during the anaphase to telophase transition. Thereafter, high levels of MPF are again restored and oocytes are kept at this stage under the influence of a cytostatic factor (CSF) (Smith, 2001). MPF is fully degraded when oocytes are fertilized or parthenogenetically activated (Nebreda and Ferby, 2000
; Tunquist and Maller, 2003
). The process of maturation, however, is much more complex and not yet fully understood (Eichenlaub-Ritter and Peschke, 2002
). In somatic cells, the transition from one stage to another one is perfectly controlled by so-called checkpoint controls. It is unclear whether equivalent control mechanisms also exist in mammalian oocytes (LeMaire-Adkins et al., 1997
; Yin et al., 1998
; Fulka et al., 2000
). In general, we may suppose that the same, or similar, cell cycle control mechanisms regulate maturation of human oocytes (Yamashita et al., 2000
).
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Maturation arrests in human oocytes |
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GV stage arrest |
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Levran et al. (2002), however, reported that the inability of oocytes to mature was observed repeatedly, thus we may rather suppose some rare heritable molecular defects that are responsible for the inability of these oocytes to initiate the activation of MPF. It is impossible to define these defects precisely but a recent paper by Lincoln et al. (2002
) showed that this possibility may theoretically exist. These authors generated Cdc25B/ mice and found that oocytes from these females were ovulated at GV stage and when further cultured in vitro were unable to undergo GVBD and remained GV stage-arrested. The wildtype Cdc25B mRNA microinjection into these oocytes triggers the resumption of meiosis. The possible treatment for the patient described in Levrans paper would be, theoretically, the transfer of GV from a patients oocytes into a donors enucleated oocytes (Fulka et al., 2002
; Palermo et al., 2002
), with their subsequent maturation and IVF (ICSI).
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Metaphase I arrest |
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Metaphase II arrest and abnormal situations after fertilization |
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It is possible that levels of the above or similar proteins were reduced and that this resulted in an abnormal separation of maternal chromosomes in MII. Even if we accept that the first meiotic division differs from the second one, the consequences of non-extrusion of polar bodies are basically the same and result in chromosomally abnormal oocytes (Soewarto et al., 1995). Moreover, all the above cases are very difficult to explain. For example, if we accept that some spindle defects may be responsible, it is then not easy to understand how oocytes reached the MII. This indicates the absence of cell cycle checkpoint controls, but we rather suggest that there is a high probability that in some patients, oocytes are deficient in some key cell cycle regulating molecules (Schmiady and Neitzel, 2002
).
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Conclusion |
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Acknowledgement |
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References |
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Submitted on May 6, 2003; accepted on July 8, 2003.