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Developmental competence of antral follicles and their oocytes after gonadotrophin treatment of sows with gene polymorphisms for leptin and melanocortin receptors (Iberian pig)

  • Gamete biology
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Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate possible differences in follicle and oocyte developmental competence after gonadotrophin treatment in sows of obese and lean genotypes.

Methods

Follicle dynamics, ovulation rate and oocyte developmental competence to embryo were compared between females, of obese (n = 7) and lean genotypes (n = 10), treated with 1,250 I.U. of eCG and 500 I.U. of hCG.

Results

The obese genotype showed lower numbers of follicles growing to preovulatory stages (12.4 ± 1.8 vs 18.6 ± 1.0, P < 0.05), of corpora lutea (16.0 ± 0.9 vs 23.5 ± 0.9, P < 0.05), and of recovered oocytes/embryos (8.0 ± 1.3 vs 12.9 ± 0.9, P < 0.05). Thereafter, embryo viability rates also decreased when compared to lean genotypes (62.5 vs 77.6%, P < 0.05).

Discussion

To our knowledge, this is the first study analyzing the effect of obese genotypes on the ovarian response to exogenous gonadotrophins in a non-rodent animal model, the pig. A lower efficiency of gonadotrophin treatments for stimulation of follicle development and induction of ovulation was observed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully thank ACOMPOR and CPP staff for skilled technical assistance. This work was supported by funds from INIA (project RZ07-010) and ITACyL (project PEP 2008/01043) under the collaborative project CC07-014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ACOMPOR PIGS, Segovia, Spain

    Jorge Muñoz-Frutos

  2. Departamento de Toxicologia y Farmacologia, Facultad de Veterinaria, UCM, Madrid, Spain

    Teresa Encinas

  3. Dpto. de Reproducción Animal, INIA, Avda. Puerta de Hierro s/n., 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Pilar Pallares, Laura Torres-Rovira, Raul Sanchez-Sanchez & Antonio Gonzalez-Bulnes

  4. NUTEGA, Madrid, Spain

    Pedro Gonzalez-Añover

  5. Centro de Pruebas de Porcino, ITACyL, Segovia, Spain

    Emilio Gomez-Izquierdo

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  1. Jorge Muñoz-Frutos
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  2. Teresa Encinas
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  3. Pilar Pallares
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  4. Laura Torres-Rovira
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  8. Antonio Gonzalez-Bulnes
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Correspondence to Antonio Gonzalez-Bulnes.

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Capsule

Differences in follicle dynamics and oocyte developmental competence between obese and lean genotypes sows, submitted to exogenous gonadotrophin stimulation.

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Muñoz-Frutos, J., Encinas, T., Pallares, P. et al. Developmental competence of antral follicles and their oocytes after gonadotrophin treatment of sows with gene polymorphisms for leptin and melanocortin receptors (Iberian pig). J Assist Reprod Genet 28, 437–443 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-011-9535-7

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