Oleic Acid Prevents Detrimental Effects of Saturated Fatty Acids on Bovine Oocyte Developmental Competence1

Abstract

Mobilization of fatty acids from adipose tissue during metabolic stress will increase the amount of free fatty acids in blood and follicular fluid and, thus, may affect oocyte quality. In this in vitro study, the three predominant fatty acids in follicular fluid (saturated palmitic and stearic acid and unsaturated oleic acid) were presented to maturing oocytes to test whether fatty acids can affect lipid storage of the oocyte and developmental competence postfertilization. Palmitic and stearic acid had a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on the amount of fat stored in lipid droplets and a concomitant detrimental effect on oocyte developmental competence. Oleic acid, in contrast, had the opposite effect, causing an increase of lipid storage in lipid droplets and an improvement of oocyte developmental competence. Remarkably, the adverse effects of palmitic and stearic acid could be counteracted by oleic acid. These results suggest that the ratio and amount of saturated and unsaturated fatty acid is relevant for lipid storage in the maturing oocyte and that this relates to the developmental competence of maturing oocytes.

Effect of oleic acid supplementation on prostaglandin production in maternal endometrial and fetal allantochorion cells isolated from late gestation ewes

“…OA is a major component of NEFAs with evidence to suggest that concentrations of OA are elevated in women with obesity and that this may contribute to complications such as pre-eclampsia and premature delivery [3,6,9]. On the other hand, OA supplementation is credited with beneficial actions on neutralising the negative effects of dietary saturated fatty acids [14,33]. There is, however, very little evidence available to show the effects of OA on PG production in tissues from the female reproductive tract.…”

Lipids and oocyte developmental competence: the role of fatty acids and β-oxidation

“…Decomposition of Nile red spectra was used to quantify triacylglycerol, phospholipid and cholesterol in oocytes and embryos (Romek et al 2011); Nile Red staining of porcine oocytes followed by florescence resonance energy transfer was used to demonstrate that lipid droplets and mitochondria are within w10 nm of each other (Sturmey et al 2006). BODIPY 493/503 is a neutral lipid dye that has more recently been used to detect lipid droplets in oocytes and demonstrate they are bounded by the lipid droplet protein ADRP in both mouse and bovine , Aardema et al 2011. Examination of lipid droplets in an individual mouse oocytes by matrixassisted laser desorption/ionisation mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) (Ferreira et al 2010) and syncotron Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) and Raman microspectroscopy demonstrated that the molecular composition of the lipid deposits exhibits spatial organisation within the droplet (Wood et al 2008) and that mature oocytes which have high developmental competence have a distinct lipid profile compared with oocytes with immature chromatin structures that are unable to complete meiosis and form blastocysts (Ami et al 2011).…”

Change in energy metabolism of in vitro produced embryos: an alternative to make them more cryoresistant?

“…The composition of these phospholipids determines the physicochemical properties of the membrane, including fluidity, permeability and thermal behavior. Thus, they are important substances for embryonic development LEESE, 2006;STURMEY et al, 2009;AARDEMA et al, 2011).…”