O-3: Effect of Melatonin Treatment on Developmental Potential of Somatic Cell Nuclear- Transferred Mouse Oocytes In Vitro

Background Melatonin (N-acetyl-5- methoxytryptamine) is mainly synthesized and secreted in the pineal gland, ovary, testes, bone marrow, retina and lens in mammalian species. It is involved in the detoxification of ROS and protects embryos from oxidative damage. Melatonin acts as a potential free radical scavenger, including peroxyl radical and hydroxyl radical. In addition, it can stimulate the activity of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase. Though the beneficial effect of supplementing culture medium with melatonin has been reported previously, to our knowledge, there are no reports on the effect of melatonin on mouse SCNT during in vitro embryonic development under culture medium. Therefore, in the present study melatonin was added to the culture medium and its effect on mouse SCNT embryos was investigated. MaterialsAndMethods In this study, we assessed the effects of various concentrations of melatonin (10−6 to 10−12 M) on the in vitro development of mouse somatic cell nuclear transfer embryos for 96 h. Embryos cultured without melatonin were used as control. Results There was no significant difference in cleavage rates between the groups supplemented with melatonin, dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) and the control. The rate of development to blastocyst stage was significantly higher in the group supplemented with 10−12 M melatonin compared with the control group (P< 0.05). Conclusion Thus, our data demonstrated that adding melatonin to pre-implantation mouse nuclear-transferred embryos can accelerate blastocyst formation.