Interferon‐τ in bovine blastocysts following parthenogenetic activation of oocytes: Pattern of secretion and polymorphism in expressed mRNA sequences

Abstract

A series of experiments were conducted to examine the pattern of production and secretion of interferon‐τ (IFN‐τ) by blastocysts following parthenogenetic activation of bovine oocytes. In the first experiment, 36.8, 24.1, and 33.2% of IVF‐derived and parthenogenetically activated oocytes cultured in the presence or absence of a monolayer of buffalo rat liver cells, respectively, reached the blastocyst stage. Following individual culture of blastocysts, IFN‐τ concentration in medium droplets was similar among the three groups, although IVF‐derived blastocysts contained significantly more cells. In the second experiment, 156 IVF‐derived blastocysts were sexed by PCR with 75 and 81, respectively, being male and female. IFN‐τ secretion of these was compared to that of 70 parthenogenetic blastocysts. Female and parthenogenetic blastocysts produced significantly more IFN‐τ than their male counterparts. In the third experiment, the ability of hatched blastocysts to form outgrowths and the pattern of their IFN‐τ secretion were examined. Of the 48 IVF‐derived blastocysts, 44 formed outgrowths compared to 41 of the 42 hatched parthenotes. Parthenogenetic outgrowths were significantly larger after 7 days, but this difference had disappeared after 14 days. IFN‐τ secretion did not differ between the two groups. Lastly, sequence analyses of expressed mRNA from individual parthenogenetic blastocyst outgrowths showed four different transcript types which, based on their predicted amino acid sequence, belong to two subgroups, IFN‐τ1 and IFN‐τ3. In addition, one new transcript sequence was identified, encoding a new protein isoform. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 64: 79–85, 2003.