Resilience of Oocyte Germinal Vesicles to Microwave-Assisted Drying in the Domestic Cat Model

The ability to compact and inject the cat germinal vesicle (GV) into a recipient cytoplast allows exploration of a new fertility preservation strategy that avoids whole oocyte freezing. The objective of the present study was to understand the impact of water loss and storage time on GV DNA integrity. Immature cat oocytes were exposed to 1.5M trehalose for 10min before microwave-assisted dehydration for 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, or 40min. Oocytes then were rehydrated to assess chromatin configuration and the incidence of DNA fragmentation (TUNEL assay). The moisture content progressively decreased (p<0.05) from 1.7 to 0.1gH(2)O/gDW over the first 30min, but did not decrease further (p>0.05) after 40min. Chromatin configuration was unaffected (p>0.05) over time. The percentage of GVs with DNA fragmentation was unaltered (p>0.05) from 0 to 30min of treatment (range, 6.1%-12%), but increased (p<0.05) to 32.5% after 40min. Next, the influence of storage at two different supra-zero temperatures after 30min of drying was investigated. Oocyte-loaded, microwave-treated filters were individually sealed in Dri-Shield moisture barrier bags and stored at 4 degrees C or ambient temperature for 0 to 8 weeks. Moisture contents gradually decreased (p<0.05) from 0.12 to 0.10gH(2)O/gDW after 8 weeks of storage at 4 degrees C or ambient temperature. The percentage of GVs with DNA fragmentation more than doubled (p<0.05) from 0 (14.3%) to 2 days (30.0%-33.0%), but remained stable (p>0.05) thereafter (1 through 4 weeks, 25.0%-35.0%). Collective results demonstrate the feasibility of using microwave processing to dehydrate the mammalian GV to a moisture content that is nonlethal and enables nonfrozen storage, an alternative approach for preserving the maternal genome at cool or ambient temperature.