Effect of quercetin on the number of blastomeres, zona pellucida thickness, and hatching rate of mouse embryos exposed to actinomycin d: an experimental study
1. Research Center of Nervous System Stem Cells, Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Semnan University of Medical Sciences 2. Research Center of Nervous System Stem Cells, Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Semnan University of Medical Sciences
Abstract
Introduction
Quercetin is a flavonoid with the ability to improve the growth of
embryos in vitro, and actinomycin d is an inducer of apoptosis in embryonic cells. the aim was to evaluate the effect of quercetin on the number of viable and apoptotic cells, the zona pellucida (zp) thickness and the hatching rate of preimplantation embryos exposed to actinomycin d in mice.
Methods
two-cell embryos were randomly divided into four groups (control, quercetin, actinomycin d, and quercetin + actinomycin d group).
blastocysts percentage, hatched blastocysts, and zp thickness of blastocysts was measured. the number of blastomeres was counted by hoechst and propidium iodide staining and the apoptotic cells number was counted by tunel assay.
Results
The results showed that the use of quercetin significantly improved the
growth of embryos compared to the control group (p=0.037). moreover, quercetin
reduced the destructive effects of actinomycin d on the growth of embryos
significantly (p=0.026).
Conclusion
quercetin may protect the embryos against actinomycin d so that
increases the number of viable cells and decreases the number of apoptotic cells,
which can help the expansion of the blastocysts, thinning of the zp thickness and increasing the hatching rate in mouse embryos.
Keywords
Quercetin, embryonic development, zona pellucida, apoptosis, blastocyst innercell mass.
