Antioxidant capacity of melatonin on morphological and molecular aspects of fresh and vitrified preimplantation rabbit embryos

2^nd International Conference & Exhibition on Tissue preservation and Bio-banking

September 12-13, 2016 Philadelphia, USA

Gamal Mohamed Kamel Mehaisen

Cairo University, Egypt

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Tissue Sci Eng

Abstract :

Embryo cryopreservation remains an important technique to enhance the reconstitution and distribution of animal populations with high genetic merit. One of the major detrimental factors to this technique is the damage caused by oxidative stress. Melatonin is widely known as an antioxidant with multi-faceted ways to counteract the oxidative stress. This study was carried out to investigate the role of melatonin in protecting rabbit embryos during pre-implantation development from the potential harmful effects of oxidative stress induced by in vitro culture or vitrification. The data showed that melatonin promoted the blastocyst rate in both fresh and vitrified rabbit embryos. The activity of antioxidant enzymes such as glutathione S-transferase and superoxide dismutase significantly increased by the treatment of melatonin in fresh or vitrified embryos, while the levels of produced oxidative substrates such as lipid peroxidation and nitric oxide decreased (P<0.05). Additionally, melatonin considerably stimulated the relative expression of oxidative-stress-response-related genes (NFE2L2 and SOD1) and developmental-related-genes (GJA1 and Nanog) in both fresh and vitrified embryos. Furthermore, melatonin significantly ameliorated the reduction of developmental-POU5F1 and antioxidant-GPX1 gene expression induced by vitrification. The results obtained from the current investigation provide new and clear molecular aspects regarding the mechanisms by which melatonin promotes development of both fresh and vitrified rabbit embryos.

Biography :

Gamal Mohamed Kamel Mehaisen has received his PhD from Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. He is now an Associate Professor of Poultry Physiology at Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Egypt. He got his BSc degree in Agricultural Science 1991, MSc in Poultry Production 1997 from Cairo University and Diploma in Animal Production from Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza - IAMZ (CIHEAM), Spain. He has published 6 papers in international journals and more than 10 publications in reputed local journals. His area of research interest focuses on improving the methods and results of semen and embryo vitrification protocols using the rabbit as animal model.

Email: gamoka@cu.edu.eg