Cattle production by intracytoplasmic sperm injection into oocytes vitrified after ovum pick-up

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), oocyte vitrification after ovum pick-up (OPU), and in vitro maturation are reproductive technologies with incredible potential for efficient cattle production. However, the developmental competence of embryos produced by ICSI using vitrified OPU oocytes remains unknown. Here, we aimed to evaluate the developmental competence of these embryos from the early embryo period to full term. The cleavage rate in the ICSI embryos using vitrified OPU oocytes during in vitro culture was significantly lower than those in control in vitro fertilized (IVF) embryos using fresh OPU oocytes (30.9 ± 4.5% v.s. 65.9 ± 7.0%) (P < 0.05), but the proportion of blastocysts to cleaved embryos was significantly higher than those of IVF embryos using vitrified OPU oocytes (55.9 ± 10.8% v.s. 23.2 ± 9.3%) (P < 0.05). To further investigate the transcription levels of genes related to cell differentiation in ICSI embryos using vitrified OPU oocytes, the relative abundance of mRNAs (OCT4, NANOG, SOX2, CDX2, GATA3, and IFNT) was analyzed by quantitative reverse-transcription PCR. There were no significant differences in the expression levels between ICSI embryos using vitrified OPU oocytes and control IVF embryos. Finally, developmental competence to term in ICSI embryos using vitrified OPU oocytes was examined by embryo transfer, and two healthy calves were born. These findings confirmed that ICSI and vitrification decrease developmental rates in vitro, but both procedures can lead to full-term development of bovine embryos. These results demonstrate that ICSI embryos using vitrification OPU oocytes are viable for cattle production.