Parthenogenetic activation of Chinese hamster oocytes by chemical stimuli and its cytogenetic evaluation

This study was undertaken parthenogenetically to activate Chinese hamster oocytes in vitro by chemical stimuli. Oocytes were exposed to five different chemical agents, ethanol (EtOH), strontium chloride (SrCl2), cycloheximide (CHX), phorbol ester (PMA), and ionophore A23187 (IA23). No parthenogenetic activation was observed in the oocytes treated with 8% EtOH for 8-11 min, 1.7 mM and 5.0 mM SrCl2 for 1 hr, 100 microM and 400 microM CHX for 2 hr, and 81 nM and 162 nM PMA for 5 min. In contrast, 89.7% of oocytes parthenogenetically extruded the second polar body in treatment with 3 microM IA23 for 5 min, but only 22.6% of them formed a pronucleus and developed to 2-cell embryos. The remaining ova stopped their cell cycle immediately after completion of the second meiotic division. They had unichromatid chromosomes (monads), which are called MIII chromosomes. Treatment with 5 microM IA23 for 5 min was so deleterious that > 90% of oocytes were degenerated. However, oocyte activation was significantly improved when the treatment with 3 microM IA23 for 5 min was followed by treatment with 8% EtOH for 10 min, 100 microM CHX for 2 hr, 81 nM PMA for 5 min or 3 microM IA23 for 5 min: rates of pronuclear formation were 54.4%, 84.3%, 34.2%, and 54.6%, respectively. More than 80% of pronucleate ova successfully developed into 2-cell stage. Additive treatment with 5 mM SrCl2 for 1 hr had no positive effect on pronuclear formation. Incidences of aneuploidy (4.6%) and structural chromosome aberrations (1.0%) in parthenogenons produced by combined stimuli of IA23 and CHX were not significantly different from those (3.8% and 1.6%, respectively) in female pronuclei of ova fertilized in vitro, showing that combined treatments with IA23 and CHX cause neither nondisjunction at the second meiotic division nor structural aberrations in MII chromosomes. The present technique for parthenogenetic activation of Chinese hamster oocytes may be useful as an assessment system to detect aneugenic and clastogenic effects of mutagens on mammalian oocytes.