Nicotine induces multinuclear formation and causes aberrant embryonic development in bovine

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of nicotine on development of bovine embryos derived from parthenogenetic activation (PA) and in vitro fertilization (IVF). Nicotine caused disfigured secondary meiotic spindle structures and affected embryonic development in a dose-dependent manner. Concentrations at 0.01-0.5 mM resulted in cleavage and blastocyst rates similar to the controls for both PA and IVF embryos. Nicotine at 2.0 and 4.0 mM significantly decreased the cleavage rates and none of the embryos developed beyond the 16-cell stage. Nicotine might disrupt the polymerization of microfilaments leading to impaired chromosome alignment or segregation, and induce the formation of polynuclei with a variety of abnormal nuclear structures such as 2-6 nuclei, 2-4 metaphase plates, 2-4 sets of anaphase/telophase plates, and the co-existence of polynuclei and 2-4 sets of anaphase/telophase plates. Nicotine adversely affected blastocyst chromosomal composition. Fifty-six to 70% of the IVF blastocysts and 71-88% of the PA blastocysts were polyploid and/or mixoploid after culture in 0.2-1.0 mM nicotine-containing media, which were higher (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01) than the controls. Cell numbers of the nicotine-cultured blastocysts were significantly lower than the control. In conclusion, nicotine induced disfigured spindles and irregular chromosome alignment and possibly impaired cytokinesis, which lead to decreased quality of the yielded blastocysts.

Physiological Aspects of Female Fertility: Role of the Environment, Modern Lifestyle, and Genetics

“…In animal models cigarette smoking leads to a depletion of primordial follicles (49), further loss of follicles throughout folliculogenesis, impaired cumulus oocyte complex expansion (361) and impaired granulosa cell function, granulosa cell steroid production, impaired oocyte meiosis (49), and a predisposition to aneuploidy within the oocyte (201). It is unclear how these translate for the woman that smokes cigarettes while attempting to conceive; however, it is known that smoking leads to a reduction in ovarian reserve and an advancement of the age of menopause for the woman (167,301), potentially due to the influence of polycyclic hydrocarbons which are activated into more toxic metabolites by the liver (49,271).…”

Nicotine combined with okadaic acid or taxol adversely affects bovine oocyte maturation and subsequent embryo development

“…Nicotine (N 3876; Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO) solution preparation was as described previously (2,3). The OA and taxol were prepared as 100 mmol/L stocks.…”

“…The concentrations of nicotine (10 and 50 mmol/L) used in this study were selected because nicotine at these doses did not affect bovine oocyte maturation and subsequent embryo development (2,3). The COC were incubated in nicotine (10, 50 mmol/L) containing maturation media or in combinations of nicotine with OA (0.01, 0.05 mmol/ L) or taxol (0.05, 0.1 mmol/L) for 24 h. Then, the COC were denuded by vortexing for 4 min in TL-Hepes medium containing 100 IU/mL hyaluronidase.…”

“…In vitro fertilization and in vitro culture of embryos were as described previously (2). Briefly, frozen semen was thawed in a 37 C water bath and centrifuged on a 45%/90% layered Percoll gradient.…”

“…The disruption of microfilaments prevented the movement of dividing anaphase chromosomes to the cortical area and induced the formation of diploid oocytes (2). Nicotine can also affect embryonic development to lead to the formation of multinucleated blastomeres and polyploidy in blastocysts (3).…”