Comparative Study of IVF and parthenogenesis in bubaline oocytes

The objective of this study was to understand the pitfalls of the poor oocyte cleavage and subsequent embryo production by assessing the developmental competence of the oocytes in buffalo using parthenogenesis as a model which was compared with IVF (natural activation). Buffalo ovaries were collected from slaughter house and matured oocytes were subjected to either IVF (control) or chemical activation (treatment)[7% ethanol (ET)for 7 min + 2.5 mM 6-Di methyl amino purine (6-DMAP) for 4 hr, or 7% ET for 7 min + 10 ug/ml Cycloheximide (CHX) for 6 hr or 7% ET for 7 min + 2.5 mM 6-DMAP + 10 ug/ml CHX for 6 hr]. Fertilized and chemically activated oocytes were cultured in mSOF medium for 8 days to study embryo development.In conclusion, the results of parthenogenesis, revealed that buffalo oocytes had better inherent developmental competence and the poor cleavage and embryo development following IVF, in our study, may partly be due to the poor quality of frozen-thawed sperm, improper sperm capacitation and/ or fertilization. Further, high ambient temperature adversely affected the cleavage and embryo development following IVF.