Effect of oxidative stress on development and DNA damage in in-vitro cultured bovine embryos by comet assay

The correlation of oxidative stress on development and DNA damage in bovine embryos was investigated by the comet assay (single-cell microgel electrophoresis), an effective technique for detecting single-strand DNA breakage. After in vitro maturation and fertilization, one-cell stage embryos without cumulus cells were cultured for 8 days in SOF medium containing amino acids plus 5% FCS under low (5%) and atmospheric (20%) oxygen concentration. After 8 days of culture, the extent of blastocyst formation was significantly decreased (P<0.001) when embryos were cultured under 20% oxygen concentration (5.8 +/- 2.4%) when compared to embryos cultured under 5% oxygen concentration (35.1 +/- 6.7%). At the day 3 of development, DNA damage of individual embryos cultured under 5% or 20% oxygen concentration was measured by the comet assay, which entails microgel electrophoresis that can readily detect damaged DNA. After measuring the DNA damage in individual embryos by the comet assay, the length (149.9 +/- 15.3 mu m) of the migrating DNA fragment that is indicative of damaged DNA was significantly increased (P<0.001) in the embryos cultured under 20% oxygen concentration when compared to embryos cultured in 5% oxygen concentration (42.3 +/- 7 mu m). The length of damaged DNA in more than 50% of embryos was less than 50 mu m. when embryos were cultured under 5% oxygen concentration. In contrast, the distribution of damaged DNA shifted to the more damaged extent when embryos were cultured under 20% oxygen concentration. These results demonstrate that the retardation in bovine embryo development than in likely due oxidative stress as a consequence of the higher atmospheric oxygen concentration is positively correlated with an increase in the extent of DNA damage. Moreover, these results demonstrate that the comet assay is a useful method to evaluate embryo culture conditions. (C) 2000 by Elsevier Science Inc.