During oocyte growth, the morphology of the nucleolus changes into a compact and
homogenous structure. The compact nucleoli in full-grown oocytes are not stained by
aceto-orcein staining or immunofluorescence staining. In this study, we developed a
hematoxylin staining method for pig oocytes in whole-mount preparations to visualize
the nucleoli. Nucleoli of growing and full-grown oocytes were stained blue with
hematoxylin. Using this staining method, the changes in the oocyte nucleolus during
maturation were examined. The nucleolar diameter gradually decreased in maturing
oocytes (10.7 ± 0.1 μm to 9.0 ± 0.7 μm, P<0.05) before germinal vesicle breakdown
(GVBD). The results suggest that the nucleolar volume of oocytes decreases before
GVBD.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.