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Keiichiro Tominaga

Publications and source records attributed to Keiichiro Tominaga.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Conventional freezing of in vitro-produced and biopsied bovine blastocysts in the presence of a low concentration of glycerol and sucrose.

The purpose of this study was to develop a practical cryopreservation method for in vitro-produced (IVP) and sex-predetermined bovine blastocysts that will be applicable to direct transfer of the post-thaw embryos. Blastocysts were harvested 7 days after IVF and allocated to either an intact or biopsy group. The cryoprotective solution contained 0.7 M glycerol and 0, 0.05 or 0.1 M sucrose. Slow cooling at a rate of -0.5 C/min was terminated at -25, -30, or -35 C, and rapid cooling in liquid nitrogen was followed. After one-step thawing and dilution, the IVP blastocysts were cultured for 3 days to assess their survival. The post-thaw survival rate of intact blastocysts after termination of slow cooling at -30 C in 0.7 M glycerol plus 0.1 M sucrose (96.2%) was significantly higher than that at -25 C in 0.7 M glycerol alone (44.4%). The post-thaw survival rate of biopsied bovine blastocysts after termination of slow cooling at -25 C in 0.7 M glycerol alone (53.8%) tended to be lower than that at -25 C in 0.7 M glycerol plus 0.05 M sucrose (91.3%) or -30 C in 0.7 M glycerol plus 0.1 M sucrose (92.3%). Thus, addition of a small amount of sucrose to 0.7 M glycerol cryoprotective solution shortened the process of slow cooling for both the intact and biopsied bovine embryos. Judged from the survival levels in vitro after thawing and one-step dilution of embryos (>80%), this is an improved method of cryopreservation for subsequent direct transfer of IVP and biopsied bovine blastocysts.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Contribution of spermatozoal centrosomes to the microtubule-organizing centre in Antarctic minke whale ( Balaenoptera bonaerensis ).

Using an interspecies microinsemination assay with bovine oocytes, it was examined whether centrosomes of Antarctic minke whale spermatozoa function as the microtubule-organizing centre (MTOC). Bull and rat spermatozoa were used as positive and negative controls, respectively. Vitrified-warmed bovine mature oocytes were subjected to immunostaining against alpha-tubulin 4-6 h after intracytoplasmic injection (ICSI) of 5 mM dithiothreitol-treated spermatozoa. Aster formation occurred from whale spermatozoa (33%) and bull spermatozoa (33%), but very little from rat spermatozoa (3%). Activation treatment for the microinseminated oocytes with 7% ethanol + 2 mM 6-dimethylaminopurine resulted in a similar proportion of oocytes forming a whale sperm aster (35% vs 27% in the non-treated group; 4 h after ICSI) but a significantly larger aster (ratio of aster diameter to oocyte diameter, 0.57 vs 0.30 in the non-treated group). These results indicate that the centrosome introduced into bovine oocytes by whale spermatozoa contributes to the MTOC and that assembly of the microtubule network is promoted by oocyte activation.

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PubMed2004

Efficient production of sex-identified and cryosurvived bovine in-vitro produced blastocysts.

To establish a protocol for production of bovine in-vitro produced (IVP) blastocysts that were sex-identified and cryopreserved, we examined the sexing efficiency and accuracy of Day-3 and Day-4 embryos by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the development of the biopsied embryos into Day-7 blastocysts and the freezability of these blastocysts by vitrification in gel-loading tips. One or two blastomeres were isolated from IVP embryos at either the 8-cell or 16-cell stage (Days 3 and 4, respectively) by a pressing-out method, and were then subjected to primer extension preamplification (PEP)-PCR. The successful sex-identification rate of biopsied samples amplified, purified and analyzed for sex by a second PCR (88.9%) was higher than that of those amplified and analyzed without purification (32.0%). Developmental rates into Day-7 blastocysts of biopsied embryos (Day-3, 65.5%; Day-4, 70.8%) were similar to those of non-biopsied control embryos (Day-3, 74.5%; Day-4, 65.1%). Total cell numbers and the inner cell mass (ICM) ratio of blastocysts derived from biopsied embryos were also comparable with those of control embryos. Blastocysts were vitrified-warmed in the presence of 20% DMSO, 20% ethylene glycol and 0.6M sucrose using gel-loading tips as containers. The proportions of biopsied blastocysts that were hatched or hatching rates after warming were high, regardless of the biopsy time (Day-3, 94.1%; Day-4, 91.9%), similar to the rates for control blastocysts (Day-3, 97.5%; Day-4, 96.9%). In conclusion, a protocol that allows sexing of Day-3 and Day-4 bovine embryos without compromising either the developmental ability to the blastocyst stage or freezability of Day-7 blastocysts was developed.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Cryopreservation and sexing of in vivo- and in vitro-produced bovine embryos for their practical use.

My research awarded includes contributions to cryopreservation and sexing of bovine embryos produced in vitro and in vivo, as follows; (1) In vivo-derived morulae and blastocysts were cryopreserved in the presence of 10% glycerol, and the embryos were transferred into recipients after two-step dilution of glycerol in straw, with a practically acceptable pregnancy rate. (2) The survival rate of 16-cell stage embryos frozen in the medium with ethylene glycol was higher than that with DMSO or 1,2-propanediol. Addition of linoleic acid-albumin to culture medium enhanced the survival rate of post-thaw bovine 16-cell stage in vitro-produced (IVP) embryos. (3) Polarization of cytoplasmic lipid droplets by centrifugation of 2-cell stage embryos was found effective to increase freezing tolerance in 16-cell stage embryos developed from the centrifuged embryos, because blastomeres of 16-cell stage embryos were mostly lipid-free. (4) The usefulness of gel-loading tip (GL-Tip) as a container for ultra-rapid vitrification was demonstrated in IVP embryos from 2-cell to blastocyst stages, with a higher in vitro survival than the conventional two-step freezing. (5) PCR analysis for sexing of in vivo-derived Day-7 embryos indicated that male embryos developed faster and graded higher than female embryos. But such correlation between genetic sex and embryonic development was not found in IVP embryos obtained from individual cows. (6) Addition of 0.1-1.0% deproteinized hemodialysate product from calf blood to culture medium increased the producing efficiency of demi-embryos with good quality. Female embryos rather than male embryos required a longer time to repair after bisection. (7) In vivo-derived bovine embryos after biopsy for sexing by PCR analysis and subsequent vitrification using GL-Tips are available to practical use in the field. (8) Introduction of primer extension preamplification-PCR and purification of DNA product before standard sexing PCR of biopsy samples from Day 3-4 in vitro-derived embryos allowed accurate sex determination, and Day-7 blastocysts developed from Day 3-4 embryos were cryopreserved by GL-Tip vitrification without a loss of their viability. Thus the field application of bovine embryo transfer is in part supported by improvements of technologies in embryo cryopreservation and sex pre-determination.

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