The Sea Cucumber Body Wall Extract Promoted in Vitro Maturation of NMRI Mice Follicles at Germinal Vesicle Stage

Background: IVM (in vitro maturation) appear to be certified high pregnancy outcome. Therefore, attempt to find an appropriate culture system using natural products for increasing developmental competencies fascinating. Objectives: This experiment is aimed to evaluate the effect of sea cucumber methanol extract on in vitro maturation of immature mouse oocyte. Methods: In this experimental study, Preantral follicles at germinal vesicle stage were collected from 24 - 26 days NMRI female mouse ovaries and transferred to IVM medium supplemented with different concentration of sea cucumber methanol extract (5, 10, 20, 30 µg/mL). Antioxidant capacity of sea cucumber extract was evaluated using DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) assay. Further, oocyte maturation and TNF-α expression were recorded till day 10th. Data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) through SPSS 16. Results: The percentage of arrested oocyte at germinal vesicle stage in the control group was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than treated group (20 µg/mL). There were significant (P < 0.01) differences in percentage of maturated oocyte to metaphase II (MII) stage between treated and control group. DPPH radical scavenging capacity and reduction of TNF-α expression in treated oocyte demonstrated that sea cucumber increased rate of oocyte maturation. In addition, the treated oocyte (20 µg/mL) achieved the highest percentage of MII stage. Conclusions: It was concluded that the sea cucumber extract with optimum concentration can improve oocyte maturation. Sea cucumber extract treatment can be suggested as a novel therapeutic strategy to be used in infertility modality in the future.